Systems and Methods for the Assessment of Vertical Goodwill in Social Media Performance

ABSTRACT

Described herein are systems and methods for analyzing social media data, assessing various aspects of social media performance, comparing the social media performance of a plurality of entities within a peer group, and displaying useful information to a user in a comprehensive and/or intuitive fashion. The social media performance assessment information pertaining to an asset may take into account the social media performance of a related entity and/or another asset belonging to a different hierarchical tier of a peer group, organization, or industry. A peer group, and its hierarchical tiers, may be customized or dynamically defined such that the user may specify the influence one asset&#39;s social media performance may have on another or the influence that the social media performance of a group of assets may have on one or more other assets.

This is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No.14/259,787, filed Apr. 23, 2014, and claims the benefit of priority toU.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/906,167, filed Nov. 19, 2013,both of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The embodiments relate generally to systems and methods for collecting,analyzing, assessing, and displaying an entity's social mediaperformance and, more specifically, systems and methods that assess anentity's social media performance with respect to other entities withinthe same peer group, organization, or industry.

BACKGROUND

With the proliferation of social media networks and individual user'spropensity to endorse, share, or otherwise express opinions regardingsocial media content, there is an ever-growing volume of valuable datathat can be used to analyze or otherwise derive the generalsignificance, influence, and impact surrounding such content. Moreover,individual user's interactions with social media content can provideinsights relevant to the entities that author or place the content(either directly or through subsidiaries/contractors/employees/etc.).

The advertising industry is over a trillion dollar per year industrywith an ever-growing focus on online advertising and social mediacontent. Marketers and brands are constantly trying to optimize existingad campaigns and look for new ways to reach potential customers.Moreover, businesses and their agents/personnel are actively engaging insocial media, attempting to elevate their public profile, drive consumertraffic, and influence the public's behavior and opinions. Gatheringdata associated with social media content and deriving insightstherefrom is therefore of chief importance.

In response to this need, many systems and methods have been developedto gather, analyze, and transform the vast quantity of social media datathat is available through the various social media platforms such thatthe data can be placed in a form useful to the entities responsible forauthoring, buying, and placing social media content items. Among otherthings, entities placing content within social media platforms areinterested in learning if the content is reaching its targetdemographic, whether that target demographic is interacting with thecontent, and whether the entities' online efforts are having an impacton consumer behavior. To this end, systems and methods have beendeveloped to assess social media marketing efforts and conveyinformation that can be used by marketers or brands to make decisionsgoing forward.

These systems and methods, however, fail to deliver valuable insightswith respect to how an individual's or entity's social media performancemay compare to its peers, who is most effective at creating consumerinteraction, and what entities most efficiently engage with the publicover today's various social media platforms. The known systems andmethods for assessing online marketing campaigns also lack adequatetechniques for comparing one entity versus another, or one industryversus another. Nor do they account for the intra-organizational orintra-industry impact that one entity's social media activity may haveon another entity. Rather, advancements in known systems and methodshave primarily focused on expanding the quantity of data gathered andanalyzed, identifying those social media users wielding the mostinfluence among a demographic, and assessing a sentiment associated withdiscrete social media content items and/or users.

Accordingly, systems and methods could benefit from improved devices andtechniques for analyzing social media data and transforming that data tofacilitate a holistic assessment of an entity's social media activity.Moreover, improved device and techniques are needed to facilitateside-by-side comparisons of social media performance across a peergroup, within an organization, across an industry, or across multipleindustries.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

In accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure,systems and methods for analyzing social media data, assessing variousaspects of social media performance, comparing the social mediaperformance of a plurality of entities within a peer group, anddisplaying useful information to users in a comprehensive and/orintuitive fashion are disclosed. In one aspect, social media data can beanalyzed in the context of peer groups such that assessment, scoring,ranking, and/or best practices empirical data can be derived therefrom.This data may then drive transformation and investment efforts withrespect to social media activity, advertising, marketing, and all otherspending efforts within the context of a competing set of industries,markets, brands, organizations, or individuals. Peer groups may bedefined in a number of ways and may comprise an industry, anorganization, a trading area, and/or a group of user-selected orpredetermined entities or individuals. The peer groups may further spanacross similar entities within an industry, a subset of entities withinan industry, a plurality of industries, and/or any other relevantboundaries of competitive forces.

In another aspect, the system may comprise a method for assessing anentity's social media performance across one or more social mediaplatforms in light of, among other things, subject matter, market size,geographic considerations, time constraints, vertical goodwill, and/orhorizontal goodwill. In some embodiments, vertical goodwill may reflectthe impact that an entity's social media performance attributed to, orinfluenced, the performance of other entities belonging to a differenttier within the same peer group, organization, industry, or hierarchy.Horizontal goodwill, on the other hand, may reflect the impact that anentity's social media performance attributed to, or influenced, theperformance of other entities belonging to a common tier within the samepeer group, organization, industry, or hierarchy.

In another aspect, systems and methods of the present disclosure mayfacilitate comparing an entity, such as a brand, organization,sub-brand, affiliate, individual, or subset of individuals, againstsimilarly situated entities within a peer group.

In a further aspect, any insights, assessments, and comparisonsperformed in conjunction with the systems and methods disclosed hereinmay be used to benchmark entities with respect to their competitionand/or develop best practices. In one embodiment, benchmarking and/orbest practices may be qualitatively and/or quantitatively based, atleast in part, on empirical statistical data and analysis within anindustry, across an industry, or across a peer group.

Moreover, systems and methods described herein may comprise a userinterface for displaying social media performance and assessmentinformation pertaining to one or more entities. In some embodiments, inaddition to performance and assessment information, the user interfacemay communicate information for comparing an entity's performance to oneor more other entities within a peer group. The user interface may alsopresent ranking information pertaining to an entity's performancerelative to the peer group, social media platform information. In oneembodiment, peer groups may be customizable within the interface usingone or more filters for further defining or refining the presentedinformation. For example, filters may comprise one or more of anindustry filter, a tier filter, a geographic filter, a temporal filter,a subject matter filter, a market size filter, a demographic filter, anda social media platform filter.

In another aspect, the user interface may be configured to displayinformation pertaining to one or more entities within a tier of a peergroup, organization, brand, or industry, including competing industryparticipants, sub-brands, peer groups, and individuals. Alternatively oradditionally, the user interface may be configured to display multi-tierperformance assessment information. For example, the interface maysimultaneously display data pertaining to entities spanning a pluralityof tiers within a peer group, organization, brand, or industry.

Additional objects and advantages of the present disclosure will be setforth in part in the description which follows, and in part will beobvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of thedisclosure. The objects and advantages of the disclosure will berealized and attained by means of the elements and combinationsparticularly pointed out in the appended claims.

It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description andthe following detailed description are illustrative and explanatory onlyand are not restrictive of the claims.

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute apart of this specification, illustrate several embodiments and togetherwith the description, serve to explain the principles of the disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 depicts some aspects of an illustrative embodiment of a system asdescribed herein.

FIG. 2 depicts some aspects of an illustrative embodiment of a system asdescribed herein.

FIG. 3 depicts some aspects of an illustrative embodiment of a system asdescribed herein.

FIG. 4 depicts some aspects of an illustrative embodiment of a system asdescribed herein.

FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a computing system asdescribed herein.

FIG. 6 depicts some aspects of an illustrative embodiment of a method asdescribed herein.

FIG. 7 depicts some aspects of an illustrative embodiment of a method asdescribed herein.

FIG. 8 depicts some aspects of an illustrative embodiment of a method asdescribed herein.

FIG. 9 depicts some aspects of an illustrative embodiment of a method asdescribed herein.

FIG. 10 depicts some aspects of an illustrative embodiment of a systemas described herein.

FIG. 11 depicts some aspects of an illustrative embodiment of a methodas described herein.

FIG. 12 depicts some aspects of an illustrative graphical user interfaceas described herein.

FIG. 13 depicts some aspects of an illustrative graphical user interfaceas described herein.

FIG. 14 depicts some aspects of an illustrative graphical user interfaceas described herein.

FIG. 15 depicts some aspects of an illustrative graphical user interfaceas described herein.

FIG. 16 depicts some aspects of an illustrative graphical user interfaceas described herein.

FIG. 17 depicts some aspects of an illustrative graphical user interfaceas described herein.

DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Disclosed herein are various embodiments of a system for collecting,evaluating, transforming, and displaying social media assessment andperformance information. In one aspect, the system may gather dataassociated with an entity from one or more social media platforms. Thesystem may further collect data pertaining to other entities within theentity's peer group, organization, and/or industry. The collected datamay then be analyzed to derive assessment information indicative of theentity's social media performance and, in some embodiments, to directlycompare the performance of the entity to that of other entities.

In another aspect, the assessment of an entity's social mediaperformance may take into account the social media performance ofrelated entities. For example, the social media performance of an entitymay be positively or negatively impacted by the social media performanceof one or more other entities within the entity's peer group,organization, or industry, including entities belonging to differenthierarchical tiers within the entity's organization or industry.

The systems and methods disclosed herein can also be used to deriveindustry benchmarks and/or best practices for an individual, peer group,organization, industry, or industry subset.

While the systems and methods described herein are primarily concernedwith gathering and analyzing data from social media platforms, oneskilled in the art will appreciate that the systems and methodsdescribed below can be used in other contexts, including the analysis ofdata gathered from any number of sources such as privately maintaineddatabases or public sources accessible via the Internet.

Reference will now be made in detail to certain illustrativeembodiments, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanyingdrawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be usedthroughout the drawings to refer to the same or like items.

FIG. 1 depicts one illustrative embodiment of a hierarchical structure100. In one aspect, hierarchical structure 100 may comprise a pluralityof vertical tiers, each tier representing one or more subsets orgroupings within the hierarchy. In another aspect, the first tier mayrepresent a peer group. The peer group may comprise one or more assetssharing one or more common traits. The first tier of a peer group may bethe highest level, broadest, or most encompassing subset or group withinthe hierarchy, i.e., peer group 110 at the first tier may comprise everyasset within the hierarchical structure. Each subsequent tier maycomprise progressively narrower groups or subsets of entities than theprevious tier and/or represent one or more subsets of the entitiesbelonging to the previous tier in the hierarchy. As depicted in FIG. 1,hierarchical structure 100 may comprise four vertical tiers. In otherembodiments, however, structure 100 may comprise fewer or additionaltiers.

As used herein, an “asset” is meant to describe any entity, the socialmedia performance of which is to be assessed, scored, and/or presented.As shown in FIG. 1, an asset may comprise any entity, including but notlimited to, an organization, a profession, a brand, a network, anindustry, a sub-organization, a sub-brand, an affiliate, a department, asection, a program, an employee, a contractor, an individual, etc. Thus,structure 100 may comprise one or more tiers, each tier comprising oneor more assets, the assets becoming more narrowly defined at eachsuccessive tier.

In one illustrative embodiment, peer group 110 (the highest tier instructure 100) may be a television network. In such an embodiment, thetier 2 assets, i.e., sub-groups 120 a, 120 b, 120 c, may represent oneor more subdivisions within network 110. For example, tier 2 maycomprise one or more affiliate television stations 120 a, 120 b, 120 c,each associated with network 110 of tier 1. The tier 3 assets, i.e.,micro-groups 130 a, 130 b, 130 c, in turn, may represent one or moresubdivisions encompassed by at least one asset of tier 2. For example,the tier 3 assets may comprise one or more television programs 130 a,130 b, 130 c, each associated with affiliate 120 a of tier 2. Likewise,the tier 4 assets may comprise one or more subdivisions encompassed byat least one asset of tier 3. Continuing with this particular example,the tier 4 assets may comprise one or more individuals or televisionpersonalities 140 a, 140, 140 c, each associated with program 130 a oftier 3.

Of course, this is only one example of peer group 110 and structure 100.In another example, peer group 110 may comprise one or more members of aprofession such as television personalities. In such an embodiment, thetier 2 assets may represent subdivisions of the television personalitiesbased on subject matter. For instance, asset 120 a may be news anchors,asset 120 may be weather forecasters, asset 120 c may be reporters, etc.Continuing with this example, tier 3 assets may be further refinedsubsets of each tier 2 asset and/or may be subdivided based on marketsize or geographic territory. Tier 4 assets may then, in one embodiment,represent the individual television personalities.

It should be noted, however, that each asset within a particular tiermay not be associated exclusively with a corresponding asset of the nexthighest tier. In other words, though FIG. 1 depicts micro-group 130 a oftier 3 as being associated with sub-group 120 a of tier 2, that may notexclude the possibility that micro-group 130 a of tier 3 may also beassociated with sub-group 120 b or 120 c of tier 2. Similarly, thoughFIG. 1 depicts individual 140 a of tier 4 as associated with micro-group130 a of tier 3, that does not exclude the possibility that individual140 a of tier 4 may also be associated with micro-group 130 c of tier 3.Going one step further, it also does not exclude the possibility that anasset of tier 4 may be associated with multiple tier 2 assets. In otherwords, individual 140 a of tier 4 may be associated with sub-group 120 aof tier 2 as well as sub-group 120 b of tier 2. In fact, any assetassociated with peer group 110 at any tier may be associated with anyother asset in hierarchical structure 100. Moreover, any assetassociated with peer group 110 may also be associated with another peergroup entirely (not depicted).

While the aforementioned examples describe peer group 110 (the highesttier in structure 100) as a television network or a profession, itshould be understood that peer group 110 may represent any assetcomprising one or more subsets of assets. For example, peer group 110may be, among other things, an industry, market, organization, corporateentity, brand, business, or any subdivision thereof. The next tier ofassets may comprise one or more subdivisions of the peer group. Forexample, where peer group 110 may be an organization, the next tier ofassets may be one or more entities at least partially operated by,controlled by, supervised by, advised by, funded by, or otherwiseassociated with the peer group. This tier of assets may include, amongother things, any division, department, franchise, affiliate, sub-brand,branch, or other entity that may be considered on a second,intermediate, or otherwise lower organizational tier than the peer group110. The same may be true for each subsequent tier of structure 100.Again, these examples are not meant to encompass all embodiments.Rather, they are only illustrative of the possibilities and presented toafford one of skill in the art a framework within which to understandthe systems and methods described herein.

In addition to each asset within structure 100 having an associationwith one or more tiers and/or other assets within the structure, eachasset within each tier of structure 100 may be associated with one ormore social media profiles 150. For example, one or more assets ofstructure 100 may be associated with one or more of a Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn, or Instagram profile. Profiles 150 may represent a socialmedia presence on one or more social media platforms and may be used to,among other things, communicate announcements, politicize events,advertise products, disseminate news stories, or otherwise reachcustomers, consumers, or the public.

In one aspect, each asset within peer group 110 may have one or moresocial media profiles for which it may be directly responsible forplacing content and/or engaging with the public. For example, each ofpeer group 110, sub-groups 120 a, 120 b, 120 c, micro-groups 130 a, 130b, 130 c, and individuals 140 a, 140 b, 140 c may have control over, orbe responsible for maintaining, one or more respective social mediaprofiles. Thus, when assessing the social media performance of an assetwithin structure 100, information from the one or more social mediaprofiles controlled or maintained by the asset may be collected,analyzed, scored, and/or presented.

In some embodiments, however, when assessing the social mediaperformance of an asset, information may be collected not only fromthose social media profiles controlled or maintained by that asset, butinformation may be collected from one or more social media profilescontrolled or maintained by other assets within or outside of structure100. For example, assessing the social media performance of asset 120 aof tier 2 may involve collecting information associated not only withthe social media profile(s) controlled or maintained by asset 120 a, butalso social media profile(s) controlled or maintained by other assets,such as assets 130 a, 140 a, 140 b, and 140 c. In this manner, anassessment of the social media performance of each asset withinhierarchical structure 100 may take into account the contributions,positive or negative, of other related assets within the same structureor peer group.

In a further embodiment, and as described in more detail below, as oneor more assets and/or social media profiles are entered into anassessment system such as, for example, the system depicted in FIG. 4,each asset may be associated with one or more social media profiles. Theone or more assets may be entered into the assessment system manually(e.g., by a user) or in an automated/programmatic fashion. As discussedabove, the social media profiles associated with each asset may or maynot be directly controlled or maintained by the respective asset. Infact, any asset may be associated with any social media profile instructure 100 or other social media profile in the system. Inalternative embodiments, rather than the one or more assets beingassociated with one or more social media profiles at the time that theassets are entered into the assessment system, the assets may beassociated with the one or more social media profiles at some time afterthe assets are entered into the system. In further embodiments, thesocial media profiles associated with any one or more assets enteredinto the system may be updated to add, subtract, or substitute socialmedia profiles.

In another aspect, and as described in more detail below, the weightafforded each social media profile to be included in an assessment of aparticular asset's social media performance, or the weight affordedinformation collected with respect to each social media profile to beincluded, may be adjusted based, at least in part, on a relationshipbetween that asset and the asset having control over the respectivesocial media profile. For instance, in an embodiment in which asset 130a may represent a television program and asset 140 a may represent atelevision personality appearing on the television program, and whenassessing the social media performance of asset 130 a, informationcollected from one or more social media profiles directly controlled ormaintained by asset 130 a may be weighted heavier than informationcollected from one or more social media profiles directly controlled ormaintained by asset 140 a. Similarly, the information collected from theone or more social media profiles directly controlled or maintained byasset 140 a may be weighted heavier than information collected from oneor more social media profiles directly controlled or maintained by asset130 b, which, in this embodiment, may be another television programairing in a time slot adjacent to asset 130 a. Of course this is onlyone example of how one or more social media profiles may be consideredand/or weighted when assessing the social media performance of an assetand is not meant to exclude other suitable possibilities forincorporating and/or variably weighting information associated with oneor more social media profiles when assessing the social mediaperformance of an asset.

By taking into consideration the social media profiles of related assetswithin structure 100, the social media performance assessment of eachasset may reflect both vertical and horizontal goodwill garnered fromrelated assets within the peer group, however that peer group isdefined. As used herein, the term “vertical goodwill” may be used todescribe the effect that an asset's social media performance benefited,hindered, or otherwise influenced the performance of other assetsbelonging to a different tier within the same structure 100. “Horizontalgoodwill,” on the other hand, may be used to describe the effect that anasset's social media performance benefited, hindered, or otherwiseinfluenced the performance of other assets belonging to a common tierwithin structure 100.

FIG. 2 depicts an illustrative embodiment of one or more social mediaprofiles, such as social media profiles 150 of FIG. 1. In one aspect,social media profiles 150 may comprise a plurality of social mediaplatform-specific profiles, each maintained by a respective entity. Theplatform-specific profiles may comprise data indicative of the socialmedia presence of the respective entity with the platform. In oneembodiment, the platform-specific profiles, each controlled ormaintained by a respective entity, may comprise data indicative ofactivity taking place on one or more social media platforms. Such datamay include, but is not limited to, information associated with theplacement of content on each platform by the respective entity,information associated with the placement of content by other members ofthe respective social media platform, information associated with othermembers' engagement of the entity and/or content placed by the entity,and/or information indicative of relationships between any two or moreentities within the respective platform.

For example, social media profiles 150 may comprise a Facebook socialmedia profile 210, an Instagram social media profile 220, a Twittersocial media profile 230, a LinkedIn social media profile 240, and/orother social media profiles 250. It should be noted, however, thatsocial media profiles 210, 220, 230, 240, and 250 may only berepresentative of the possibilities. Social media profiles 150 maycomprise any number of social media profiles, across any number ofsocial media platforms, each profile being maintained by an asset withinor outside of structure 100. In one embodiment, each asset of structure100 may maintain each of a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedInprofile. In other embodiments, one or more assets of structure 100 maymaintain additional, fewer, or alternative profiles. In other words,social media profiles 150 may comprise the social media profilesmaintained by any entity within or outside of structure 100, regardlessof social media platform. In one embodiment, social media profiles 150may comprise every social media profile of every social media platform,or some subset thereof. Moreover, any or all of the social mediaprofiles may comprise the aforementioned data indicative of the socialmedia presence of one or more entities with respect to a particularsocial media platform.

In another aspect, one or more of the social media profiles may compriseone or more dedicated content channels. In one embodiment, profile 210may comprise one or more dedicated content channels 212, profile 220 maycomprise one or more dedicated content channels 222, profile 230 maycomprise one or more dedicated content channels 232, profile 240 maycomprise one or more dedicated content channels 242, and profile 250 maycomprise one or more dedicated content channels 252. In a furtherembodiment, a dedicated content channel may comprise a webpage, profilepage, newsfeed, or communication channel controlled or maintained by theentity that controls or maintains the respective profile. The asset mayalso have an amount of control or a level of autonomy with respect tocontent disseminated through the dedicated content channel, includingcontent originating from the asset and/or content originating fromanother member of the respective social media platform.

In a further aspect, any or all of the social media profiles maycomprise one or more public conversations communicated over therespective social media platform. In one embodiment, social mediaprofile 210 may comprise one or more public conversations 214, socialmedia profile 220 may comprise one or more public conversations 224,social media profile 230 may comprise one or more public conversations234, social media profile 240 may comprise one or more publicconversations 244, and social media profile 250 may comprise one or morepublic conversations 254. In a further embodiment, a public conversationmay be included within a social media profile where, for example, theasset responsible for controlling or maintaining the profile (or anaffiliated entity, asset, etc.) is the subject of the conversation, ismentioned in the conversation, or the conversation relates to a subjectmatter in which the asset is interested, involved, or otherwiseassociated with. Of course, these are only examples of the types ofpublic conversations that may be included within a social media profileand should not be considered exhaustive of the possibilities. Anysuitable criteria for classifying a public conversation within a socialmedia profile may be implemented and used in conjunction with thisdisclosure.

In one embodiment, public conversations may be initiated by the assetthat controls or maintains the profile or by another asset within anytier of the structure. Alternatively, public conversations may beinitiated without any such asset's involvement, e.g., initiated by amember of the respective social media platform that is unaffiliated withpeer group 110, initiated by a member of the public, or initiated bysome other entity related or unrelated to one or more assets within ahierarchical structure. In a further aspect, and regardless of theentity responsible for initiating the public conversation, the assetthat controls or maintains the respective profile, or an asset withinthe peer group 110, may take part, or engage, in the public conversationor it may not.

FIG. 3 depicts an environment 300 for facilitating the collection,analysis, assessment, and presentation of social media performanceinformation over a network, such as the Internet. In one aspect,environment 300 may comprise an end user device 310, a host server 320,and a plurality of social media servers 330, 340, 350. In oneembodiment, host server 320 may be in communication with user device 310and/or social media servers 330, 340, 350 via the Internet. In otherembodiments, host server 320 may be in communication with user device310 and/or social media servers 330, 340, 350 via any one or moresuitable communication channels, including but not limited to, wirelessnetworks, wired networks, and/or networks comprising wireless and wiredcomponents.

In another aspect, end user device 310 may be a personal computer. Inother embodiments, user device 310 may be a smart phone, a tablet, asmart television, or any other processor-based or controller-basedcomputing device.

In a further aspect, host server 320 may comprise, or otherwise be incommunication with, one or more host databases (not depicted in FIG. 3).The one or more host databases may be maintained separate from hostserver 320 so that server 320 may more fully utilize its processingpower. Alternatively, any or all host databases may be integrated withserver 320. Moreover, information stored within any or all hostdatabases may be duplicated across the one or more databases ordistributed between them.

Host server 320 may autonomously communicate with social media servers330, 340, 350, each corresponding to a social media platform such asFacebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram, to name a few. In oneembodiment, host server 320 may communicate with social media servers330, 340, 350 via one or more Application Programming Interfaces(“APIs”). Social media servers 330, 340, 350 may be publicallyaccessible or they may be privately maintained and/or requirecredentials to access. Further, each social media server may be incommunication with one or more respective databases. As described abovewith respect to host server 320, each of the respective databases may bemaintained separate from its associated social media server, orintegrated therewith. In one embodiment, one or more of social mediaservers 330, 340, 350 (and their respective databases) may gather andrecord member activities, statistics, and information in conjunctionwith members' engagement with the associated social media platforms. Inone embodiment, the respective databases may be updated with memberactivity information in real-time, or they may be periodically updatedat predetermined intervals.

In another aspect, host server 320 may be configured to access socialmedia servers 330, 340, 350, and their respective databases, via therespective APIs. Host server may further be configured to collect aportion or all of the information contained in the respective databaseof each social media server. In this manner, all of the informationavailable in each social media server/database may be collected by hostserver 320 and stored in the host database(s) for analysis, assessment,presentation, and/or recall. Access to the social media servers andtheir respective databases by third parties such as host server 320 maybe permitted in an unfettered fashion (for example, all data may be madeavailable in real-time) or meted out in accordance with one or morerestrictions imposed by the respective social media platforms (forexample, limits on the quantity of data available for retrieval within apredetermined period of time or restrictions as to what information ismade available to third parties).

Though user device 310, host server 320, and social media servers 330,340, 350 are each depicted as single servers/devices for simplicity, itshould be appreciated that one or more of these components may actuallycomprise a distributed network comprising a plurality ofservers/devices. Moreover, while FIG. 3 depicts only one user device 310and three social media servers 330, 340, 350, environment 300 maycomprise additional users and user devices, as well as more or fewersocial media servers.

FIG. 4 depicts another embodiment of host server 320. As shown in FIG.3, host server 320 may be in communication with user device 310 andsocial media servers 330, 340, 350 via a network, such as the Internet.

In one aspect, host server 320 may comprise a configuration module 410,a data retrieval module 420, a database 430, a streaming data module440, an assessment module 450, a supplemental data module 460, a tokenmanagement module 470, and a presentation module 480.

In one aspect, a user desiring to assess the social media performance ofone or more assets may access host server 320 via user device 310. Forexample, the user may access configuration module 410 of host server320. In particular, the user may transmit identifying information toconfiguration module 410, the identifying information pertaining to oneor more assets to be assessed and/or one or more social media profilesrelated to the one or more assets.

In one aspect, a user may transmit information associated with one ormore assets, each belonging to a peer group and/or related to one ormore of the social media profiles. For example, the user may transmitasset information identifying assets 110, 120 a, 130 a, 140 a, 140 b,and 140 c.

In another aspect, a user may transmit information associated with oneor more social media profiles, each of which may be related to one ormore of the identified assets within the peer group. For example, theuser may transmit information associated with one or more of socialmedia profiles 150. Alternatively, host server 320 may programmaticallyidentify one or more of social media profiles 150, each of which may berelated to one or more of the identified assets, based, at least inpart, on the asset identification information provided by the user.Regardless of how the social media profile information may be attained,the social media profile information may comprise identification and/orauthentication information associated with each social media profile. Ina further embodiment, the user may transmit (or host server mayprogrammatically identify) any or all information necessary for hostserver 320 to access a corresponding social media server and/or retrievedata from the corresponding social media server associated with a socialmedia profile.

In a further aspect, each identified asset may be associated with one ormore social media profiles. In one embodiment, the user may associateeach asset with one or more social media profiles. In other embodiments,each asset may be programmatically associated with one or more socialmedia profiles. In such an embodiment, one or more of the programmaticassociations may be presented to the user for the user's acceptance orrejection. In this manner, a user may be afforded an opportunity tocustomize which social media profiles may be associated with whichassets.

For example, the user may associate asset 140 c with a first subset ofsocial media profiles 150, asset 140 b with another subset of socialmedia profiles 150, asset 140 a with yet another subset of social mediaprofiles 150, and so on, for each of assets 130 a, 120 a, and 110. Ofcourse, this example is only illustrative of the possibilities andshould not be construed as limiting of the suitable possibilities. Anycombination of one or more social media profiles 150 may be associatedwith any of the identified assets, either manually or programmatically.Further, each social media profile may be associated with one or moreassets, and vice versa. Moreover, and as discussed in more detail below,the assessment of each social media profile may be weighted differentlyfor each asset to which it may be associated. For example, assuming thata particular social media profile may be associated with both assets 140a and 130 a, a performance assessment of that social media profile maybe weighted heavier when assessing the social media performance of asset140 a than when assessing the social media performance of asset 130 abecause asset 140 a may be more closely related to, or responsible formaintaining, that social media profile.

In a further aspect, the user may associate (“tag”) each asset and/orsocial media profile for which social media performance is to beassessed with additional trait or characterization information. In oneembodiment, the asset or social media profile may be tagged with anytrait information that may be helpful in assessing the asset's orprofile's performance and/or identification of the asset's peers. Thetagged information may also be useful in sorting the performanceassessment results presented to the user, which is discussed in moredetail below.

In some embodiments, the asset may be tagged with information including,but not limited to: information identifying one or more peer groups towhich the asset belongs; information identifying one or more tierswithin a peer group's hierarchical structure to which the asset belongs;information indicative of the industry in which the asset participates;information identifying the job responsibilities of the asset;information identifying which other assets within a peer group the assetmay be related (and how closely the asset may be related to any suchother assets); information indicative of the geographic location, reach,or territory of the asset; information indicative of the market sizeassociated with the asset's activities; information indicative of atarget demographic associated with the asset's activities; and/orinformation identifying a time period associated with the asset'sactivities. It should be noted that these examples are only illustrativeof the possibilities, and assets may be tagged with any suitable traitinformation useful in the assessment of the asset's social mediaperformance, determining the members of an asset's peer group, and/ordefining relationships between an asset and one or more other entities.

In another aspect, such tagged information may serve to aid in theautomated identification of those entities within an asset's peer group.For example, any or all entities comprising one or more similar tags maybe presumed to belong to a common peer group. Such assets may or may notbelong to the same organization or, in some cases, even the sameindustry.

In one embodiment, configuration module 410 may programmaticallyidentify one or more entities sharing one or more common traits ascompared to an asset. Configuration module 410 may then suggest to theuser including those entities within a peer group associated with theasset. In a further embodiment, the user may then have an opportunity toaccept or reject inclusion of the identified entities in the asset'speer group. Additionally or alternatively, the user may manuallyidentify entities to include within each asset's peer group. Thus, theuser may be afforded an opportunity to customize a peer group for one ormore assets, and information may be collected not only from the socialmedia profiles associated with the user's assets, but also from thesocial media profiles associated with the entities within the asset'speer group.

Such embodiments afford the user an ability to assess the social mediaperformance of each asset compared to, or in light of, the performanceof its peers, as the user defines those peers. Such contextualassessment may, among other things: provide the user with a more robustand comprehensive understanding of an asset's social media performance;enable comparison of the asset's performance to similarly situatedentities; facilitate benchmarking within an industry, organization, orpeer group; and/or promote the establishment of best practices withinthe industry, organization, or peer group.

In another aspect, the user may filter performance assessment resultsbased, at least in part, on the trait information when the user desiresto more narrowly tailor an asset's peer group. For example, where anasset is a television personality and the asset's peer group comprisesall television personalities, the user may decide to review the asset'ssocial media performance assessment results in light of a subset of thepeer group, such as those television personalities appearing at the sametime of day or television personalities associated with a common subjectmatter. Because each asset or entity for which social media data iscollected may be tagged with the various trait information, sortingperformance assessments based, at least in part, on whether each entityexhibits one or more particular traits can be done quickly andefficiently. Of course, these examples are only illustrative and shouldnot be construed as exhaustive of the possibilities. Further detailswith respect to these aspects of the disclosure are discussed below.

After the social media profile information, asset information, traitinformation, and peer group information has been gathered atconfiguration module 410, and/or the various relationships/associationsbetween the data sets has been determined, this data may be transmittedto data retrieval module 420 and/or database 430.

In one aspect, any or all of the information received at configurationmodule 410 from user device 310 may be transmitted to data retrievalmodule 420. In one embodiment, data retrieval module 420 may beconfigured to interface with one or more social media platforms, such associal media servers 330, 340, 350. As mentioned above, such interfacingmay take place via one or more APIs. Moreover, each social media servermay be in communication with one or more databases configured to storeinformation associated with one or more users of the social mediaplatform. In some embodiments, the databases corresponding to eachsocial media server may store data pertaining to member activities,statistics, and information. Such data may be provided to the socialmedia platform by a member, or collected in some other fashion (e.g., bymonitoring a member's activities and/or engagements over the socialmedia platform).

In a further aspect, data retrieval module 420 may be configured totransmit a request for data to any one or more of social media servers330, 340, 350. Such a transmission may, in some embodiments, furthercomprise authentication information and/or credentials necessary for theretrieval of information from any of the social media servers ordatabases. In one embodiment, data retrieval module 420 may request allinformation maintained in one or more databases of the social mediaplatform. In other embodiments, data retrieval module 420 may requestall information maintained in one or more databases of the social mediaplatform associated with one or more social media profiles. Inparticular, data retrieval module 420 may request all informationassociated with the social media profiles transmitted by configurationmodule 410. Such social media profiles may comprise one or more socialmedia profiles associated with assets and/or one or more social mediaprofiles associated with entities within those assets' respective peergroups. In a further embodiment, data retrieval module 420 may requestonly a subset of information maintained in one or more databases of thesocial media platform associated with one or more social media profiles.

Depending upon the permissions and/or policies of each social mediaplatform and the needs of host server 320, data retrieval module 420 mayrequest historical data associated with one or more social mediaprofiles, an ongoing, real-time stream of data associated with one ormore social media profiles, or periodic transmissions of the latestavailable data at predetermined time intervals. In some embodiments, anyone or more of the aforementioned requests may be accomplished with asingle request and/or transmission of authentication information, oralternatively, may be accomplished through a plurality of requestsand/or authentication information transmissions. For example, where dataretrieval module 420 requests an ongoing, real-time data streamassociated with one or more social media profiles, data retrieval module420 may be required to transmit updated authentication information atpredetermined intervals in order to receive the stream in anuninterrupted fashion.

In one aspect, where one or more social media profiles may includepublic conversations, as discussed previously herein, a request fromdata retrieval module 420 to one or more social media servers maycomprise one or more keywords for searching any or all publicallyavailable data of the respective social media platform. In analternative embodiment, data retrieval module 420 may request allpublically available data, or request a subset of the publicallyavailable data based on some criteria different from, or in addition to,keywords.

In a further aspect, data retrieval module 420 may be configured torequest any data from one or more social media servers 330, 340, 350 tobe used in conjunction with assessing the social media performance of anasset. In one embodiment, data retrieval module 420 may request datafrom social media servers 330, 340, 350 to be used in conjunction withassessing any one or more of the audience, voice, engagement, reach,influence, and impact (as described below) of an asset's or profile'ssocial media presence or performance.

In one embodiment, an asset's social media audience, voice, engagement,reach, influence, and/or impact may comprise the audience, voice,engagement, reach, influence, and/or impact, respectively, of one ormore social media profiles associated with that asset.

As used herein, the term “audience” may describe a relationship betweena social media profile and other members of the social media platform.In one embodiment, the audience associated with a social media profilemay indicate the number of platform members that have confirmed arelationship with the social media profile on the respective socialmedia platform. In a further embodiment, and depending on thenomenclature used by the respective social media platform, the audienceassociated with a social media profile may be based, at least in part,on one or more components, including but not limited to, “friends,”“followers,” or “fans” associated with the social media profile. In someembodiments, these components may or may not be weighted equally whendetermining the audience associated with a social media profile. Furtherdetails regarding the collection and assessment of data from one or moresocial media platforms for determining, among other things, the audienceassociated with a social media profile are set forth below.

As used herein, the term “voice” may describe a messaging activity levelassociated with a social media profile. In one embodiment, the voiceassociated with a social media profile may indicate the frequency withwhich content may be published to the social media platform by an entitythat maintains the social media profile. In a further embodiment, anddepending on the nomenclature used by the respective social mediaplatform, the voice associated with a social media profile may be based,at least in part, on one or more components, including but not limitedto, “posts,” “comments,” “tweets,” “replies,” or “re-tweets” associatedwith the social media profile. In some embodiments, these components mayor may not be weighted equally when determining the voice associatedwith a social media profile. In still further embodiments, contentpublished by the audience or other members of the respective socialmedia platform may also be included among the components of the voiceassociated with a social media profile, though content published by theasset that controls or maintains the social media profile may be weigheddifferently than content published by the audience or other members.Additionally, the media format of each component may be taken intoconsideration when weighing the components. For example, “posts”comprising a video format may be deemed a separate component and/orweighed differently than textual “posts.” Likewise, “tweets” comprisingan image format may be deemed a separate component and/or weigheddifferently than “tweets” comprising only text or a video format.Further details regarding the collection and assessment of data from oneor more social media platforms for determining, among other things, thevoice associated with a social media profile are set forth below.

As used herein, the term “engagement” may describe an ability for thesocial media profile to communicate a message reliably, i.e., while thevoice associated with a social media profile may indicate the frequencywith which content may be published by an asset that controls ormaintains the social media profile, engagement may indicate whether thatactivity is worthwhile. In one embodiment, the engagement associatedwith a social media profile may indicate whether other members of therespective social media platform are interacting with the publishedcontent. In a further embodiment, and depending on the nomenclature usedby the respective social media platform, the engagement associated witha social media profile may be based, at least in part, on one or morecomponents, including but not limited to, “shares,” “likes,” “comments,”“mentions,” “re-tweets,” “favorites,” and “replies,” and may alsoinclude, but may not be limited to, hashtag mentions and/or searchterm/keyword matches within a public conversation. In some embodiments,these components may or may not be weighted equally when determining theengagement associated with a social media profile. In still furtherembodiments, interactions with published content by any one or more ofthe asset that controls or maintains the social media profile, theaudience of the social media profile, and other members of therespective social media platform may be included in one or more of thecomponents of the engagement associated with the social media profile,though interactions by the asset that controls or maintains the socialmedia profile may be weighed differently than interactions by theaudience or other members. Additionally, the media format of eachcomponent may be taken into consideration when weighing the components.For example, “comment” comprising a video format may be deemed aseparate component and/or weighed differently than textual “comments.”Likewise, “re-tweets” comprising an image format may be deemed aseparate component and/or weighed differently than “re-tweets”comprising only text or a video format. Further details regarding thecollection and assessment of data from one or more social mediaplatforms for determining, among other things, the engagement associatedwith a social media profile are set forth below.

As used herein, the term “reach” may describe a potential first andsecond order audience, i.e., while the audience associated with a socialmedia profile may indicate the number of platform members that haveconfirmed a relationship with the social media profile, reach mayindicate whether that audience is a beneficial or useful audience. Inone embodiment, the reach associated with a social media profile mayindicate both the audience associated with the social media profile, aswell as the audience of the audience. In a further embodiment, ratherthan simply taking into consideration the audience of the audience, thereach associated with a social media profile may take into considerationonly the audience of the engaged audience, i.e., the audience of thosesocial media platform members that not only are considered a part of thesocial media profile's audience, but those members that have engaged thecontent associated with the social media profile. Further detailsregarding the collection and assessment of data from one or more socialmedia platforms for determining, among other things, the reachassociated with a social media profile are set forth below.

As used herein, the term “influence” may describe an ability for thesocial media profile to convert reach into engagement. In oneembodiment, the influence associated with a social media profile maycomprise a ratio of engagement to reach. Thus, and for example, assumingtwo social media profiles having equal reach, the social media profileassociated with greater engagement may have greater influence. Furtherdetails regarding the collection and assessment of data from one or moresocial media platforms for determining, among other things, theinfluence associated with a social media profile are set forth below.

As used herein, the term “impact” may describe an efficiency with whicha social media profile may generate influence and/or engagement. In oneembodiment, assuming two social media profiles having equal influenceand/or engagement, the social media profile associated with less voicemay have greater impact. In other words, voice may be associated withenergy expended by an asset controlling or maintaining a social mediaprofile. Thus, the social media profile associated with less voice whileachieving equal or greater influence and/or engagement may becharacterized as more efficient. Further details regarding thecollection and assessment of data from one or more social mediaplatforms for determining, among other things, the impact associatedwith a social media profile are set forth below.

In another aspect, upon receiving a request from data retrieval module420, and optionally verifying any authentication information transmittedin conjunction with such request, the one or more social media serversmay retrieve any or all of the requested information from its respectivedatabase(s) and transmit that information to data retrieval module 420.

Host server 320 may further comprise a database 430. As shown in FIG. 4,database 430 may comprise a single database integrated with host server320. In alternative embodiments, however, database 430 may be maintainedseparate from host server 320 so that, among other things, server 320can more fully utilize its processing power. In further embodiments,rather than a single database, database 430 may comprise a plurality ofdatabases that may or may not be located in a single location. Moreover,any or all information stored within database 430 may be duplicatedacross one or more databases or distributed between them.

Any or all of the information received at configuration module 410 fromuser device 310 and/or received at data retrieval module 420 from socialmedia servers 330, 340, 350 may be transmitted to database 430 forstorage. In one aspect, database 430 stores one or more of social mediaprofile information, asset information, trait information, and peergroup information received from configuration module 410, as well assome or all associations between multiple data sets. For example,database 430 may store information for associating asset information tocorresponding social media profile information, trait information,and/or peer group information.

In another aspect, database 430 may store information received from oneor more social media platforms via data retrieval module 420. Forexample, database 430 may store information retrieved for asset and/orsocial media profile assessment, including but not limited to dataindicative of the audience, voice, engagement, reach, influence, and/orimpact associated with a social media profile. In some such embodiments,database 430 may further store one or more components that may be usedin determining the audience, voice, engagement, reach, influence, and/orimpact associated with a social media profile, including but not limitedto, data indicative of “friends,” “followers,” “fans,” “posts,”“comments,” “tweets,” “replies,” “re-tweets,” “shares,” “likes,”“mentions,” and “favorites.”

Database 430 may further store information for correlating some or alldata associated with a social media profile, and/or correlating some orall social media profiles with one or more assets. In furtherembodiments, database 430 may also store algorithms for determining oneor more of the audience, voice, engagement, reach, influence, and/orimpact associated with a social media profile based on one or more ofthe aforementioned components. One or more illustrative algorithms fordetermining the audience, voice, engagement, reach, influence, and/orimpact associated with a social media profile are described below.

Additionally, where one or more of the audience, voice, engagement,reach, influence, and/or impact associated with a social media profilemay comprise a plurality of components, database 430 may further storeweights assigned to each component. In this manner, the relative weightassigned each component may be customized based, at least in part, oncontextual information. In some embodiments, the contextual informationmay comprise, for example, the industry in which an asset participates,the market size in which the asset is engaged, and/or the geographiclocation of the asset. However, it should be noted that these examplesare only illustrative of the possibilities and the components may beweighted in any suitable fashion and/or in view of any contextualinformation or other considerations. In some embodiments, the weightsassigned to each component may be predetermined and/or industry-based.In further embodiments, the predetermined weights may be presented tothe user via configuration module 410 and the user may be afforded anopportunity to modify the predetermined weights of one or morecomponents used in the assessment of any or all assets or social mediaprofiles.

In another aspect, database 430 may store authentication informationnecessary to retrieve data from one or more social media servers 330,340, 350. In one embodiment, data retrieval module 420 may read orrecall authentication information from database 430 prior to, or inconjunction with, transmitting a request for data to one or more socialmedia servers. Conversely, where authentication information may betransmitted from one or more social media servers 330, 340, 350 to dataretrieval module 420, that authentication information may be transmittedfrom the data retrieval module to database 430 for storage.

In a further aspect, any asset or social media profile modificationsmade by the user via configuration module 410 may also be stored indatabase 430. Such modifications may include, but are not limited to,changes to existing assets or social media profiles, additions of newassets or social media profiles, and removal of existing assets orsocial media profiles. In this manner, database 430 may maintain anup-to-date record of all assets and corresponding social media profilesfor which data may be retrieved from social media servers 330, 340, 350.Any or all updated information may also be communicated to dataretrieval module 420, either directly from configuration module 410 orvia database 430, to ensure that all relevant data is being requestedfrom the social media platforms and/or unnecessary data is not beingrequested from the platforms.

In another aspect, in addition to transmitting data received from socialmedia servers 330, 340, 350 to database 430, data retrieval module 420may transmit some or all of the data received from the social mediaplatforms to streaming module 440. In some embodiments, the datatransmitted to streaming module 440 may comprise data collected from oneor more social media servers 330, 340, 350 upon which the performanceassessment of one or more social media profiles and/or assets may bebased, at least in part. For example, data retrieval module 420 maytransmit data comprising information to be used in conjunction withassessing any one or more of the audience, voice, engagement, reach,influence, and impact associated with a social media profile and/orasset, including but not limited to, information indicative of thosecomponents of audience, voice, engagement, and/or reach set forth above.

In one embodiment, data retrieval module 420 may transmit one subset ofdata received from configuration module 410 and/or social media servers330, 340, 350 directly to database 430, and may transmit another subsetof data received from configuration module 410 and/or social mediaservers 330, 340, 350 directly to streaming module 440. For instance,data retrieval module 420 may transmit social media profileidentification information, asset identification information,authentication information, scoring profile information (includingweights for various components to be used in performance assessments),other information input by a user, and/or historical data retrieved fromone or more social media platforms directly to database 430. Other dataretrieved from the social media platforms (e.g., data used inconjunction with assessing any one or more of the audience, voice,engagement, reach, influence, and impact associated with a social mediaprofile and/or asset) by data retrieving module 420 may be transmitteddirectly to streaming module 440. In this manner, relatively staticinformation (i.e., information typically not subject to relativelyfrequent change or requiring affirmative intervention to change) may betransmitted directly to database 430, whereas relatively dynamicinformation (i.e., information retrieved from the social media platformsthat may be changing relatively frequently and/or updated in real-time,at pre-determined intervals, or otherwise automatically) may betransmitted directly to streaming module 440. It should be noted,however, that regardless of what information is transmitted directly tostreaming module 440, data retrieval module 420 may then transmit any orall received information to database 430 in order to supplement or amendthe data stored there. Thus, any or all real-time or relatively dynamicdata retrieved from one or more social media servers may be collectedand transmitted to an assessment module 450 (described in more detailbelow) via streaming module 440 as quickly and efficiently as possible,while still maintaining an up-to-date record in database 430 of any orall data retrieved from the one or more social media platforms,including any or all relatively dynamic information.

Assessment module 450 may comprise logic and/or algorithms for assessingthe social media performance of one or more social media profiles and/orassets. In one embodiment, such performance assessments may be based, atleast in part, on information received or retrieved from one or both ofdatabase 430 and streaming module 440. As discussed above, suchassessments may be based, among other things, on data retrieved from oneor more social media platforms, including but not limited to, “friends,”“followers,” “fans,” “posts,” “comments,” “tweets,” “replies,”“re-tweets,” “shares,” “likes,” “mentions,” and “favorites.”Thesecomponents and/or data associated therewith may be used in determiningthe audience, voice, engagement, reach, influence, and/or impactassociated with a social media profile and/or asset. Moreover, and asdiscussed above, the information upon which an assessment is based mayrely, at least in part, on information retrieved from a dedicatedcontent channel associated with a social media profile and/or publicconversations associated with an asset or social media profile.

In another aspect, assessment module 450 may determine an audienceassociated with one or more social media profiles. As discussed above,the audience associated with a social media profile may reflect arelationship between a social media profile and other members of thesocial media platform. In one embodiment, the audience associated with asocial media profile may indicate the number of platform members thathave confirmed a relationship with the social media profile on therespective social media platform. Depending on the nomenclature used bythe respective social media platform, the audience associated with asocial media profile may be based, at least in part, on one or morecomponents, including but not limited to, “friends,” “followers,” or“fans” associated with the social media profile. Such components may ormay not be weighted equally when determining the audience associatedwith a social media profile. For example, “friends” may be weightedheavier than “fans,” or vice versa.

In one aspect, the audience, a, associated with a social media profilemay be determined using the following Equation (1):

$\begin{matrix}{a,v,e,{r = \frac{\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{mj}} )}}{t}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} (1)}\end{matrix}$

As used in Equation (1), x may represent each component associated withthe social media profile to be included in the audience determinationfor components 1 through k. For example, where the audience associatedwith an illustrative Facebook social media profile may comprise threecomponents (e.g., “friends,” “followers,” and “fans”), then k may equal3 and Eq. (1) may include x1, x2, and x3. The number or type ofcomponents to be considered when determining the audience associatedwith another Facebook social media profile, a Twitter social mediaprofile, or some other social media profile may be different and theexamples provided herein are only intended to demonstrate thepossibilities. For instance, the audience associated with anillustrative Twitter social media profile may comprise only onecomponent (e.g., “followers”).

Regardless of the number of components, each component, x, may representthe sum of all event instances during the relevant time period, t. Forinstance, where the audience comprises a “friends” component, x for thatparticular component may be the total number of “friends,” however thatterm may be defined, associated with the social media profile during therelevant time period.

Further, w may represent the weight afforded each component, x, 1through k, such that where, for example, audience is based, at least inpart, on the aforementioned three components, then w may reflect theweight afforded each of those components.

Furthermore, l may represent the weight afforded a temporal period fortime periods 1 through t, such that where, for example, only one timeperiod is being included within the analysis, then/may be set to 1.0 andt, the number of time periods, may also be set to 1.0. In alternativeembodiments, however, where several different time periods are beingincluded in the analysis, l may reflect a weight afforded each timeperiod, t. For example, in one embodiment, where a performanceassessment may be made based on the social media performance associatedwith a social media profile over a time period (e.g., a day, week,month, year, etc.), relatively recent activity may be weighted moreheavily than relatively older activity. In one example, whereperformance may be evaluated with respect to all activity over aweek-long timespan, activity associated with a first day (the oldestactivity) may be discounted, for example weighted 1/7, as compared toactivity associated with the seventh day (the most recent activity).Social media activity associated with the second day may be discountedto a lesser extent, for example weighted 2/7, as compared to socialmedia activity associated with the seventh day, and so on, such thatmore recent activity may be weighted more heavily within the performanceassessment. Of course, this example is only illustrative and alternativeformulations and/or considerations for weighting both recent and olderactivity are also possible. Moreover, in alternative embodiments, it maybe desirable to weight older activity greater than more recent activity,or not consider temporal factors at all when weighting social mediaactivity.

In another aspect, the voice, v, associated with a social media profilemay also be determined using Equation (1). As described above withrespect to the audience, x may represent each component to be includedin the voice determination for components 1 through k. For example,where the voice associated with an illustrative Facebook social mediaprofile may comprise two components (e.g., “posts,” and “comments”),then k may equal 2 and Equation (1) may include x1 and x2. The number ortype of components to be considered when determining the voiceassociated with another Facebook social media profile, a Twitter socialmedia profile, or some other social media profile may be different andthe examples provided herein are only intended to demonstrate thepossibilities. For instance, the voice associated with an illustrativeTwitter social media profile may comprise three components (e.g.,“tweets,” “replies,” and “re-tweets”).

Regardless of the number of components, each component, x, may againrepresent the sum of all event instances during the relevant timeperiod, t. For instance, where the voice comprises a “posts” component,x for that particular component may be the total number of “posts,”however that term may be defined, associated with the social mediaprofile during the relevant time period.

Likewise, w and l, representing the weight afforded each component, x,and the weight afforded each time period, t, respectively, may betreated similarly to the corresponding variables described above withrespect to the audience associated with a social media profile.

The engagement, e, associated with a social media profile may also bedetermined using Equation (1). Similar to determining the audience andvoice, x may represent each component to be included in the engagementdetermination for components 1 through k. For example, where theengagement associated with an illustrative Facebook social media profilemay comprise four components (e.g., “shares,” “likes,” “comments,” and“mentions”), then k may equal 4 and Equation (1) may include x1, x2, x3,and x4. The number or type of components to be considered whendetermining the engagement associated with another Facebook social mediaprofile, a Twitter social media profile, or some other social mediaprofile may be different and the examples provided herein are onlyintended to demonstrate the possibilities. For instance, the engagementassociated with an illustrative Twitter social media profile maycomprise six components (e.g., “re-tweets,” “favorites,” “mentions,”replies,” hashtag matches, and keyword matches).

Regardless of the number of components, each component, x, may againrepresent the sum of all event instances during the relevant timeperiod, t. For instance, where the engagement comprises a “re-tweets”component, x for that particular component may be the total number of“re-tweets,” however that term may be defined, associated with thesocial media profile during the relevant time period.

Likewise, w and l, representing the weight afforded each component, x,and the weight afforded each time period, t, respectively, may betreated similarly to the corresponding variables described above withrespect to the audience and voice associated with a social mediaprofile.

The reach, r, associated with a social media profile may also bedetermined using Equation (1). Similar to determining the audience,voice, and engagement, x may represent each component to be included inthe reach determination for components 1 through k. For example, wherethe reach associated with an illustrative Facebook social media profilemay comprise six components (e.g., “friends,” “followers,” “fans,”“friends” of engaged users, “followers” of engaged users, and “fans” ofengaged users), then k may equal 6 and Equation (1) may include x1, x2,x3, x4, x5, x6. It should be noted, in this particular example, one ormore of the components may be based, at least in part, on an engagementdetermination, described above. The number or type of components to beconsidered when determining the reach associated with another Facebooksocial media profile, a Twitter social media profile, or some othersocial media profile may be different and the examples provided hereinare only intended to demonstrate the possibilities. For instance, thereach associated with an illustrative Twitter social media profile maycomprise two components (e.g., “followers” and “followers” of engagedusers).

Regardless of the number of components, each component, x, may againrepresent the sum of all event instances during the relevant timeperiod, t. For instance, where the engagement comprises a “followers”component, x for that particular component may be the total number of“followers,” however that term may be defined, associated with thesocial media profile during the relevant time period.

Likewise, w and l, representing the weight afforded each component, x,and the weight afforded each time period, t, respectively, may betreated similarly to the corresponding variables described above withrespect to the audience, voice, and engagement associated with a socialmedia profile.

In another aspect, the influence associated with a social media profilemay be determined using the following Equation (2):

$\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{\inf = \frac{e}{r}} \\{= \frac{\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{i}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{mj}} )}}{\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{mj}} )}}}\end{matrix} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} (2)}\end{matrix}$

As presented in Equation (2), the influence, inf, associated with asocial media profile may comprise a ratio of the engagement associatedwith the social media profile, e, and the reach associated with thesocial media profile, r. The influence associated with a social mediaprofile may reflect, among other things, an ability for the social mediaprofile to convert reach into engagement. Thus, and for example,assuming two social media profiles having equal reach, the social mediaprofile associated with greater engagement may have greater influence.

In another aspect, the impact associated with a social media profile maybe determined using the following Equation (3):

$\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{{imp} = \frac{e}{v \times r}} \\{= \frac{\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{ijm}} )}}{\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; {( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{ijm}} ) \times {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{ijm}} )}}}}}}\end{matrix} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} (3)}\end{matrix}$

As presented in Equation (3), the impact, imp, associated with a socialmedia profile may, like the influence, comprise a ratio of theengagement associated with the social media profile, e, and the reachassociated with the social media profile, r, but further take intoaccount the voice associated with the social media profile. Thus, theimpact associated with a social media profile may reflect, among otherthings, an efficiency with which a social media profile may generateinfluence and/or engagement. Thus, and for example, assuming two socialmedia profiles having equal influence and/or engagement, the socialmedia profile associated with less voice may have greater impact, as theentity that maintains the social media profile may be expending lessenergy while achieving equal results as compared to the other socialmedia profile.

In a further aspect, and as discussed above, the social mediaperformance of an asset may comprise the social media performance of oneor more social media profiles, n. Thus, and for example, the audience,voice, engagement, reach, influence, and/or impact associated with aplurality of social media profiles may be combined to generate theaudience, voice, engagement, reach, influence, and/or impact,respectively, associated with an asset.

$\begin{matrix}{A,V,E,{R = \frac{\sum\limits_{t = 1}^{n}\; {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{ijm}} )}}}{t}}} & {{{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} (4)}(a)}\end{matrix}$

In one embodiment, the audience, A, voice, V, engagement, E, and reach,R associated with an asset may be determined in accordance with Equation(4)(a). In particular, for all social media profiles 1 through n thatdefine an asset, and for all time periods 1 through t that are beingincluded in the assessment, and for all components of either theaudience, voice, engagement, or reach (as described above) 1 through k,the products of the time period weight, l, component weight, w, andcomponent value, x, may be summed. The result may then be divided by thenumber of time periods, t.

$\begin{matrix}{A,V,E,{R = \frac{\sum\limits_{t = 1}^{n}\; {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {c_{i}l_{j}w_{m}x_{ijm}} )}}}{t}}} & {{{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} (4)}(b)}\end{matrix}$

In another embodiment, the audience, A, voice, V, engagement, E, andreach, R, associated with an asset may be determined in accordance withEquation (4)(b). Equation (4)(b) may be substantially similar toEquation (4)(a), but Equation (4)(b) may allow for the independentweighting of one or more social media profiles to be included within theperformance assessment of an asset. For example, Facebook and Twittersocial media profiles may be weighted more heavily than Instagram orLinkedIn social media profiles. In further embodiments, geographicconsiderations may be taken into consideration when weighting one ormore social media profiles to be included in a performance assessment.For example, and as discussed in further detail below, when theperformance assessment of an asset includes the performance of socialmedia profiles maintained by other entities/assets, the weight affordedthe social media profiles maintained by the other assets may be based,at least in part, on the geographic proximity of those entities comparedto the asset being assessed. Of course, these are only a coupleillustrative embodiments of how or why a social media profile includedin the assessment of an asset's social media performance may be affordedvarying weights. Any suitable or otherwise useful criteria may be usedto determine, at least in part, the weight afforded a social mediaprofile included within a performance assessment.

Equation (4)(b) may convey that for all social media profiles 1 throughn that define an asset, and for all time periods 1 through t that arebeing included in the assessment, and for all components of either theaudience, voice, engagement, or reach (as described above) 1 through kthat may be included in any social media profile associated with theasset, the products of the contribution weight, c (i.e., the weightafforded a particular social media profile), time period weight, l,component weight, w, and component value, x, may be summed. The resultmay then be divided by the number of time periods, t.

It should be noted, although either of Equations (4)(a) or (4)(b) may beused to determine the audience, voice, engagement, and/or reachassociated with an asset, for simplicity of explanation, where theaudience, voice, engagement, and/or reach of an asset is incorporatedin, or forms the basis of, further equations or algorithms below,Equation (4)(a) will be used. However, one may appreciate that Equation(4)(b) may be substituted in other embodiments.

The influence, INF, associated with an asset may, thus, be determined inaccordance with Equation (5):

$\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{{INF} = \frac{E}{R}} \\{= \frac{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}\; {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{ijm}} )}}}{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}\; {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{i}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{ijm}} )}}}}\end{matrix} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} (5)}\end{matrix}$

It follows that in some embodiments, the impact, IMP, associated with anasset may, thus, be determined in accordance with Equation (6):

$\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{{IMP} = \frac{E}{V \times R}} \\{= \frac{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}\; {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{ijm}} )}}}{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}\; {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; {( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{ijm}} ) \times {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}\; {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{ijm}} )}}}}}}}}\end{matrix} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} (6)}\end{matrix}$

In one aspect, in addition to determining an audience, voice,engagement, reach, influence, and/or impact for an asset, adetermination as to the asset's “share” of audience, voice, engagement,and/or reach within a peer group may be made. In one embodiment, anasset's share of audience, voice, engagement, and/or reach may representa portion or percentage of a total audience, voice, engagement, and/orreach, respectively, associated with a peer group that includes theasset. In this manner, a performance assessment of an asset may directlycompare the asset's social media performance, including a number offacets thereof, against the performance of its peers. As described inmore detail above, the peer groups may be defined in a variety of waysand/or may be customized by a user.

$\begin{matrix}{A_{share},V_{share},E_{share},{R_{share} = \frac{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}\; {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{ijm}} )}}}{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{p}\; {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{ijm}} )}}}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} (7)}\end{matrix}$

In one embodiment, the share of an asset's audience, A_(share), theshare of an asset's voice, V_(share), the share of an asset'sengagement, E_(share), and the share of an asset's reach, R_(share),with respect to the overall audience, voice, engagement, and reachassociated with an asset's peer group as a whole may be determined usingEquation (7). As shown in Equation (7), the numerator may represent anyof an asset's audience, voice, engagement, or reach, and takes intoconsideration one or more social media profiles associated with theasset. The denominator, on the other hand, may represent the entireaudience, voice, engagement, or reach of the asset's peer group, where prepresents the total number of social media profiles associated with allassets within the peer group. As discussed previously, the peer groupmay be defined relatively broadly, thereby encompassing a large numberof assets, or it may be defined relatively narrowly, encompassing onlythose assets most closely related or most similar to the asset for whichsocial media performance is being assessed. The type and/or quantity ofsocial media profiles encompassed by the peer group may reflect thebreadth or scope of the peer group. In a further embodiment, to arriveat a percentage (or a whole number), the result of Equation (7) may bemultiplied by one hundred (100).

In a further aspect, an asset may also be ranked within the context of apeer group, i.e., ranked against its peers (however a particular peergroup may be defined). In one embodiment, an asset may be ranked againstits peers according to any one or more of the audience, voice,engagement, reach, influence, impact, audience share, voice share,engagement share, and reach share. In other embodiments, an asset may beranked within a peer group on a scale of 1 through 100, or some otherscale intuitive to a user (e.g., 1 through 10, an IQ-like scale of 1through 160, etc.).

In one aspect, prior to ranking an asset within a peer group, it may bedetermined how far an asset's performance lies above or far below thepeer group's average performance. In such an embodiment, the performanceof each asset or entity within the peer group may also be determined,for example, in accordance with Equation (4)(a) or (4)(b).

$\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{\mu_{A} = \frac{\sum\limits_{h = 1}^{a}\; A}{a}} \\{= \frac{\sum\limits_{h = 1}^{a}\; {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}\; {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{i}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{hijm}} )}}}}{ta}}\end{matrix} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} (8)}\end{matrix}$

The mean performance across all assets of a peer group may then bedetermined, in one embodiment, using Equation (8). Equation (8) depictsa determination for a mean audience across all assets within a peergroup. However, the same formula may be applied to arrive at the meanvoice, μ_(V), engagement, μ_(E), and/or reach, μ_(R), across all assetsfor a peer group. In particular, Equation (8) adds the audienceassessment for each asset 1 through a in a peer group, and divides thatsum by the number of assets, a, in the peer group.

In one embodiment, the mean performance across all assets of a peergroup may then be used to determine a standard deviation for performanceassessment of a peer group.

$\begin{matrix}\begin{matrix}{\sigma_{A} = \sqrt{\frac{\sum\limits_{h = 1}^{a}\; ( {A_{h} - \mu_{A}} )^{2}}{a}}} \\{= \sqrt{\frac{\sum\limits_{h = 1}^{a}\; ( \frac{\begin{matrix}{{a{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}\; {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{ijm}} )}}}} -} \\{\sum\limits_{h = 1}^{a}\; {\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{n}\; {\sum\limits_{j = 1}^{t}\; {\sum\limits_{m = 1}^{k}\; ( {l_{j}w_{m}x_{hijm}} )}}}}\end{matrix}}{ta} )^{2}}{a}}}\end{matrix} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} (9)}\end{matrix}$

Equation (9) affords one illustrative method for determining thestandard deviation associated with a peer group's performanceassessments. As was the case with respect to Equation (8), a method fordetermining the standard deviation for a peer group's audienceassessment is shown. However, the same formula may be used fordetermining the standard deviation for a peer group's voice, σ_(V),engagement, σ_(E), and/or reach, σ_(R), assessment. As used in Equation(9), Ah may represent the audience assessment for any asset within thepeer group (determined, for example, using Equation (4)(a) or (4)(b)).In particular, and for each asset within a peer group, 1 through a, themean audience assessment for the peer group may be subtracted from therespective asset's assessment and the difference may be squared. Thesummation of all such results for each asset in the peer group may thenbe divided by the number of assets in the peer group. The positivesquare root of that quotient may then represent the standard deviationfor the peer group's assessment.

Using such a standard deviation, performance assessments forassets/entities associated with above average performance with respectto a peer group may result in positive numbers (a number of standarddeviations above the mean), and performance assessments forassets/entities associated with below average performance with respectto a peer group may result in negative numbers (a number of standarddeviations below the mean). The assessments that may have been convertedinto units of standard deviation may then be rescaled to convert thestandardized scores to an intuitive scale comprising only positivenumbers (e.g., 1 through 100, 1 through 10, 1 through 160, etc.).

In one embodiment, the standardized scores of each asset/entity within apeer group may be converted to a percentile and/or ranked against theother assets of the peer group in accordance with its percentile.

$\begin{matrix}{{{percentile}\mspace{14mu} {score}_{A}} = {( {\frac{1}{\sqrt{2\pi}}{\int_{- \infty}^{\frac{A - \mu_{A}}{\sigma_{A}}}{^{\frac{- y^{2}}{2}}\ {y}}}} ) \times 100}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} (10)}\end{matrix}$

Equation (10) provides one illustrative method for converting an asset'sstandardized audience assessment into an audience assessment percentilescore. However, the same formula may be used for determining thepercentile score for an asset's voice, percentile score_(V), engagement,percentile score_(E), and/or reach assessment, percentile scorer. Inother embodiments, upon calculating the percentile score for each assetin a peer group, the assets in the peer group may be ranked inaccordance with each asset's percentile score.

There are a number of advantages to presenting and/or ranking aplurality of assets' performance assessments or scores as percentilescores. For example, this method affords a range of resulting scoresbound by 0 and 100 which may be fairly intuitive to the user and easy toinfer approximately where in a peer group an asset's performance falls.Perhaps more obviously, it may be immediately recognized in whatpercentile of the peer group the asset's performance falls.Additionally, this methods provides for easier movement of scores withinthe mid-range of the peer group than at the tails or extremes. In otherwords, an asset may find it easier to improve its percentile score from50 to 60 than from 60 to 70, and easier still than improving from 70 to80. In fact, improvement of such a percentile score becomes verydifficult the closer the asset's score approaches 100. Likewise,degradation of the percentile score may become very difficult the closerthe asset's rank approaches 0.

In another embodiment, rather than converting the standardized scores ofeach asset/entity within a peer group to a percentile score, thestandardized scores may be converted to a T-score.

$\begin{matrix}{{T\text{-}{score}_{A}} = {\frac{10( {A - \mu_{A}} )}{\sigma_{A}} + 50}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} (11)}\end{matrix}$

Equation (11) provides one illustrative method for converting an asset'sstandardized audience assessment into an audience assessment T-score.Again, the same formula may be used for determining the T-score for anasset's voice, T-score_(V), engagement, T-score_(E), and/or reach,T-score_(R). In other embodiments, upon calculating the T-score for eachasset in a peer group, the assets in the peer group may be ranked inaccordance with each asset's T-score.

Presenting and/or ranking a plurality of asset's performance assessmentsor scores as T-scores also has advantages. Like the percentile scoresdiscussed above, this method affords a range of resulting scores boundby 0 and 100 which may be fairly intuitive to the user and easy to inferapproximately where in a peer group an asset's performance falls.Additionally, this methods affords a wider range of resulting scores atthe extreme ends of the spectrum, as percentile scores may result in ascore of 0 for all entities with performance assessment scores fallingmore than 3 standard deviations below the mean for the peer group and/ora score of 100 for all entities with performance assessment scoresgreater than 3 standard deviations above the mean for the peer group.

In a further aspect, and regardless of whether asset performanceassessments may be determined as percentile scores or T-scores, thescores for one or more of audience, voice, engagement, and/or reach maybe combined into a composite score.

$\begin{matrix}{{{composite}\mspace{14mu} {score}} = \frac{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{k}\; ( {w_{i}x_{i}} )}{\sum\limits_{i = 1}^{k}\; w_{i}}} & {{Eq}.\mspace{14mu} (12)}\end{matrix}$

Equation (12) provides one illustrative method for determining acomposite score based on one or more of an audience, voice, engagement,and/or reach score. In one aspect, either a percentile score or aT-score may be used for each component to be combined into the compositescore (provided all components of the composite are based on the samescoring methodology). In one embodiment, Equation (12) may be used todetermine the weighted arithmetic mean of the components of thecomposite score. In particular, for each component, k, the correspondingscore associated with that component, x, may be multiplied by a weight,w, afforded that component. The product may then be divided by the sumof the weights associated with each component.

In another embodiment, a similar composite score may be calculated basedon the share scores set forth above with respect to Equation (7). Such acomposite score may reflect an asset's total share of social mediaactivity within a peer group, including any one or more of audienceshare, voice share, engagement share, and reach share.

In a further embodiment, the influence and impact determinations for anasset (e.g., Equations (5) and (6)) may be taken into consideration whencalculating any one or more of an asset's composite percentile score,composite T-score, and composite share score. As discussed above withrespect to audience, voice, engagement, and reach, the influence and/orimpact components may be afforded their own respective weights whendetermining a composite score that includes them.

Regardless of the type of assessments conducted in assessment module450, or how those assessments are made, assessment of the social mediadata associated with one or more assets and/or social media profiles maytake place on a continuous basis (e.g., in real-time) or atpredetermined intervals (e.g., every x seconds, minutes, hours, days,etc.). The results of any assessment made at a given time, which may bereferred to as an assessment “snapshot,” may be transmitted to database430 for storing of the assessment information. In particular, theassessment information (or assessment snapshot) may be associated withindatabase 430 with one or more asset identifiers and/or social mediaprofile identifiers stored there. Thus, a historical record of anasset's or social media profile's performance may be developed overtime.

In another aspect, in the course of performing assessments with respectto data received directly or indirectly from social media servers 330,340, 350, assessment module 450 may determine that the data associatedwith one or more assets or social media profiles appears stale oroutdated. For example, when assessing the social media performance of anasset within a peer group, assessment module 450 may determine that themost recent social media activity information associated with an assetis older than a predetermined threshold. In one embodiment, thepredetermined threshold may be a time interval, such as x seconds,minutes, hours, days, etc. In another embodiment, the predeterminedthreshold may be a function of previous social media activity levelsdetected for the asset. In other words, the predetermined threshold maybe a relatively short period of time for assets that typically exhibitfrequent social media activity, while the threshold may be a relativelylong period of time for assets that typically exhibit less social mediaactivity. In other embodiments, the predetermined threshold may be afunction of the social media activity level associated with the asset'speer group. Thus, the threshold may be a relatively short period of timefor an asset belonging to a peer group that typically exhibits frequentsocial media activity, while the threshold may be a relatively longperiod of time for an asset belonging to a peer group that typicallyexhibits little or infrequent social media activity.

In one embodiment, where assessment module 450 determines that the dataassociated with one or more assets or social media profiles appearsstale, assessment module 450 may transmit a request for updated data tostreaming module 440. In a further embodiment, the request may then betransmitted to data retrieval module 420. Retrieval module 420 may thentransmit a request to one or more social media servers 330, 340, 350 tocollect the desired data. The process of retrieving data from the one ormore social media servers by data retrieval module is described in moredetail above, as is the process of receiving the updated data andtransmitting that data to one or more of database 430, streaming module440, and assessment module 450.

In an alternative embodiment, rather than (or in addition to) therequest for updated data being transmitted to data retrieval module 420via streaming module 440, the request for updated data from assessmentmodule 450 may be transmitted to a supplemental data module 460.

In one aspect, supplemental data module 460 may be configured tointerface with one or more social media servers 330, 340, 350 and/or acorresponding API in a similar fashion as, and independent of, dataretrieval module 420. In this manner, a redundancy of social mediaserver connections may be established. This may be particularly usefulwhen one of the connections fails, is overwhelmed by data volume, orcontent retrieval over that connection is otherwise limited.

In one embodiment, the data requested by supplemental data module 460may be limited to information associated with one or more assets orsocial media profiles determined to be stale. For example, where thethreshold for determining that an asset's social media data is stale isone day, supplemental data module 460 may only request data associatedwith the respective assets or social media profiles from the last 24hours. Similar to data retrieval module 420, supplemental data module460 may request any type of information from the one or more socialmedia servers that may be useful in the assessment of an asset's, peergroup's, or social media profile's social media performance. Suchinformation may include, but is not limited to, any one or more of theaforementioned components of the audience, voice, engagement, reach,influence, and impact of an asset's social media presence orperformance.

In a further aspect, supplemental data module 460 may maintain one ormore records comprising one or more peer groups, assets, or social mediaprofiles in need of frequent updates. The entities identified in therecords may be identified algorithmically within host server 320 inaccordance with any previously-described embodiment, or they may beidentified by a user. Regardless of how the entities are identified, oneor more requests for updated data with respect to these entities may bemade at frequent and/or predetermined time intervals. In one embodiment,the time intervals at which requests are made by supplemental datamodule 460 with respect to any or all assets in need of frequent updatesmay be shorter than the time intervals at which data may be requestedfrom the social media servers via data retrieval module 420. In thismanner, the social media data associated with the entities in therecords maintained at supplemental data module 460 may be kept asup-to-date as possible.

In another embodiment, any request for data transmitted by supplementaldata module 460 may be accompanied by authentication information orcredentials necessary to access the databases associated with one ormore social media servers. As described above, authenticationinformation may be stored and/or recalled from database 430.Alternatively, or additionally, supplemental data module 460 may beconfigured to communicate with a token management module 470.

In one aspect, token management module 470 may maintain up-to-dateauthentication information used by one or both of supplemental datamodule 460 and data retrieval module 420 to retrieve data from one ormore social media servers 330, 340, 350.

In another aspect, token management module 470 may be configured toperiodically confirm the status of any or all authentication informationstored at host server 320. In one embodiment, token management module470 may be further configured to delete obsolete authenticationinformation, obtain and/or store new authentication information, orupdate/renew existing authentication information.

In another embodiment, any changes to the authentication information,including deletions, additions, modifications, renewals, or updates maybe stored in database 430 or may be stored locally at token managementmodule 470. In an alternative embodiment, any changes to theauthentication information may be stored in both database 430 and tokenmanagement module 470 for, among other things, security and dataredundancy purposes.

In another aspect, one or more performance assessments conducted atassessment module 450 may be transmitted to presentation module 480. Theperformance assessments may comprise assessments performed with respectto one or more assets, peer groups, and/or social media profiles. Theassessments may comprise any one or more of the audience, voice,engagement, reach, influence, and impact associated with an asset, peergroup, or social media profile. The assessments may also comprise anyone or more of the share of the audience, voice, engagement, or reachassociated with an asset, peer group, or social media profile. Moreover,the assessments may comprise the mean performance assessment for a peergroup, a plurality of assets, or a plurality of social media profiles.The assessments may also comprise a standard deviation associated withthe performance assessments of a peer group, a plurality of assets, or aplurality of social media profiles. Additionally, or alternatively, theassessments may comprise a percentile score for any one or more of theaudience, voice, engagement, and reach of an asset or social mediaprofile. The assessments may also comprise a T-score for any one or moreof the audience, voice, engagement, and reach of an asset or socialmedia profile. In further embodiments, the assessments may comprise oneor more composite scores for an asset or social media profile, thecomposite score being based on components derived from any of apercentile score, a T-score, or a share assessment. In still furtherembodiments, the assessments transmitted from assessment module 450 topresentation module 480 may be any type of assessment described hereinand may, in some instances, include historical assessment datapertaining to one or more assets, peer groups, or social media profiles.

In a further aspect, the assessment information received at presentationmodule 480 may be organized and/or prepared for presentation to the uservia a graphical user interface (“GUI”) appearing at the user device 310.In one embodiment, the GUI may present any of the aforementionedassessment information transmitted by assessment module 450. In afurther embodiment, the GUI may simultaneously present performanceinformation pertaining to an asset, as well as information pertaining tothe other entities within an asset's peer group. In this manner, aside-by-side comparison of an asset's performance can be interpretedwithin the context of the performance of its peers. In one suchembodiment, the asset's performance, or some aspect thereof, may benumerically ranked against the performance of other entities within theasset's peer group.

Additionally, or alternatively, the GUI may simultaneously presentperformance assessment information associated with multiple tiers of apeer group. In one embodiment, not only may performance assessmentinformation corresponding to a plurality of assets belonging to a commontier be presented, but additional performance assessment informationassociated with one or more assets belonging to a higher or lower tierof the peer group may be presented to a user. Alternatively, additionalperformance assessment information associated with one or more assetsbelonging to a different peer group entirely may be simultaneouslypresented to the user.

In still further embodiments, any combination of one or more of theaforementioned aspects of performance assessment information associatedwith an asset, a peer group, or a social media profile may besimultaneously displayed within the GUI. Moreover, any performanceassessment data stored in database 430 may be directly or indirectlytransmitted to presentation module 480 for display in the GUI. In oneembodiment, the performance assessment information displayed in the GUImay be based, at least in part, on user input. In particular, the usermay desire to customize the information displayed in the GUI based onany one or more of assets, peer groups, social media profiles, an aspectof performance assessment (e.g., audience, voice, engagement, andreach), and any of the aforementioned share and/or score assessments.The user may further customize the information presented in the GUI bysorting based on the aforementioned tagged trait information associatedwith one or more assets and/or social media profiles. Of course, theexamples provided herein are only illustrative of the possibilities, andany suitable presentation that the user finds helpful and/or places theperformance assessment information in context for the user may beimplemented. Further details regarding embodiments of the GUI aredescribed below with respect to FIGS. 12-17.

FIG. 5 depicts an illustrative processor-based computing system 500representative of the type of computing system that may be present in orused in conjunction with any one or more of end user's device 310, hostserver 320, and social media servers 330, 340, 350. The computing system500 is illustrative only and does not exclude the possibility of anotherprocessor- or controller-based system being used in or with one of theaforementioned components.

In one aspect, system 500 may include one or more hardware and/orsoftware components configured to execute software programs, such assoftware for storing, processing, and analyzing data. For example,system 500 may include one or more hardware components such as, forexample, processor 505, a random access memory (RAM) module 510, aread-only memory (ROM) module 520, a storage system 530, a database 540,one or more input/output (I/O) modules 550, and an interface module 560.Alternatively and/or additionally, system 500 may include one or moresoftware components such as, for example, a computer-readable mediumincluding computer-executable instructions for performing methodsconsistent with certain disclosed embodiments. It is contemplated thatone or more of the hardware components listed above may be implementedusing software. For example, storage 530 may include a softwarepartition associated with one or more other hardware components ofsystem 500. System 500 may include additional, fewer, and/or differentcomponents than those listed above. It is understood that the componentslisted above are illustrative only and not intended to be limiting orexclude suitable alternatives or additional components.

Processor 505 may include one or more processors, each configured toexecute instructions and process data to perform one or more functionsassociated with system 500. The term “processor,” as generally usedherein, refers to any logic processing unit, such as one or more centralprocessing units (CPUs), digital signal processors (DSPs), applicationspecific integrated circuits (ASICs), field programmable gate arrays(FPGAs), and similar devices. As illustrated in FIG. 5, processor 505may be communicatively coupled to RAM 510, ROM 520, storage 530,database 540, I/O module 550, and interface module 560. Processor 505may be configured to execute sequences of computer program instructionsto perform various processes, which will be described in detail below.The computer program instructions may be loaded into RAM for executionby processor 505.

RAM 510 and ROM 520 may each include one or more devices for storinginformation associated with an operation of system 500 and/or processor505. For example, ROM 520 may include a memory device configured toaccess and store information associated with system 500, includinginformation for identifying, initializing, and monitoring the operationof one or more components and subsystems of system 500. RAM 510 mayinclude a memory device for storing data associated with one or moreoperations of processor 505. For example, ROM 520 may load instructionsinto RAM 510 for execution by processor 505.

Storage 530 may include any type of storage device configured to storeinformation that processor 505 may need to perform processes consistentwith the disclosed embodiments.

Database 540 may include one or more software and/or hardware componentsthat cooperate to store, organize, sort, filter, and/or arrange dataused by system 500 and/or processor 505. For example, database 540 mayinclude user-specific account information, predetermined menu/displayoptions, and other user preferences. Alternatively, database 540 maystore additional and/or different information.

I/O module 550 may include one or more components configured tocommunicate information with a user associated with system 500. Forexample, I/O module 550 may include a console with an integratedkeyboard and mouse to allow a user to input parameters associated withsystem 500. I/O module 550 may also include a display including agraphical user interface (GUI) for outputting information on a monitor.I/O module 550 may also include peripheral devices such as, for example,a printer for printing information associated with system 500, auser-accessible disk drive (e.g., a USB port, a floppy, CD-ROM, orDVD-ROM drive, etc.) to allow a user to input data stored on a portablemedia device, a microphone, a speaker system, or any other suitable typeof interface device.

Interface 560 may include one or more components configured to transmitand receive data via a communication network, such as the Internet, alocal area network, a workstation peer-to-peer network, a direct linknetwork, a wireless network, or any other suitable communicationchannel. For example, interface 560 may include one or more modulators,demodulators, multiplexers, demultiplexers, network communicationdevices, wireless devices, antennas, modems, and any other type ofdevice configured to enable data communication via a communicationnetwork.

FIG. 6 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a method for gatheringinformation pertaining to one or more assets, peer groups, or socialmedia profiles, and collecting any or all associated social media datafrom one or more social media platforms.

At step 610, identification information associated with one or moreassets, entities, and/or social media profiles may be provided. In oneembodiment, a user desiring to assess the social media performance ofone or more assets or entities may provide information identifying thoseassets or entities, as well as information identifying one or moresocial media profiles to be associated with any or each of thoseassets/entities. As described above, each asset or entity may beassociated with one or more social media profiles. Conversely, eachsocial media profile may be associated with one or more assets orentities.

The user may utilize a personal computer, a tablet, a smart phone, orany other suitable, processor-based or controller-based device toprovide the identifying information and/or transmit the identifyinginformation to a host server. In particular, the user may provide theidentifying information via a dedicated software application installedon a user device. Alternatively, the user may provide the identifyinginformation to the host server via an Internet or web interface thatfacilitates communication between the user device and the host server(e.g., a remotely-hosted software application or software as a service,“SaaS”). In other embodiments, the user may communicate the identifyinginformation in any suitable fashion.

In other embodiments, the user may only provide identifying informationassociated with one or more assets or entities. In response to receivingthe identifying information, the host server may perform a search of oneor more social media platforms and return a list of associated socialmedia profiles to the user. In such an embodiment, the user may thenselect which of the returned social media profiles should or may beincluded in an assessment with respect to each asset or entityidentified.

In another aspect, a user may also provide authentication informationassociated with each identified social media profile. The authenticationinformation may, among other things, enable the host server to retrieveinformation pertaining to the social media profiles from one or moresocial media servers. In one embodiment, the authentication informationmay comprise a username and/or password for each identified social mediaprofile. In other embodiments, the authentication information maycomprise some other suitable information for gaining access to theinformation associated with a social media profile.

At step 620, the user may associate or tag each asset or entity forwhich social media performance is to be assessed with additional traitor characterization information. In one embodiment, the user maymanually input and/or associate desired trait or characterizationinformation with one or more assets. In other embodiments, the hostserver may provide the user with a plurality of tags to selectivelyassociate with one or more assets. In still further embodiments, thehost server may programmatically tag one or more assets with trait orcharacterization information based on other information provided by theuser. It should be noted, however, that these examples are onlyillustrative and any suitable method or system for tagging one or moreassets (i.e., associating one or more assets with trait orcharacterization information) is possible.

In one aspect, one or more assets may be tagged with any traitinformation that may be helpful in assessing the asset's performance,placing the asset's performance in a proper or desirable context, and/oridentifying the asset's peers. The tagged information may also be usefulin sorting the eventual performance assessment results presented to theuser.

For example, the asset may be tagged with information including, but notlimited to: information identifying the a peer group to which the assetbelongs; an organization associated with the asset; informationidentifying one or more tiers within a peer group's hierarchicalstructure to which the asset belongs; information indicative of theindustry in which the asset participates; information identifying thejob responsibilities of the asset; information identifying which otherassets within the peer group the asset may be related (and, forsubsequent weighting purposes, how closely the asset may be related toany such other assets); information indicative of the geographiclocation, reach, or territory of the asset; information indicative ofthe market size associated with the asset's activities; informationindicative of the target demographic associated with the asset'sactivities; and/or information identifying a time period associated withthe asset's activities. It should be noted that these examples are onlyillustrative of the possibilities, and assets may be tagged with anysuitable information useful in the assessment of the asset's socialmedia performance, determining the members of an asset's peer group,and/or defining relationships between an asset and one or more otherentities within an industry or hierarchical structure.

At step 630, one or more peers associated with each asset or entity maybe identified. In one embodiment, any or all of the aforementionedasset/entity/social media profile identification information may serveto aid in the automated identification of those entities within anasset's peer group. In a further embodiment, any or all of the taggedinformation (i.e., trait or characterization information associated withone or more assets or social media profiles) may be used to identify themembers of an asset's peer group. For example, any or all entitiescomprising one or more similar tags may be presumed to belong to acommon peer group.

In one embodiment, the host server may programmatically identify one ormore entities sharing one or more common traits as compared to an asset.In such an embodiment, the host server may automatedly construct peergroups for one or more of the assets. Alternatively, the host server mayprovide the user with a list of the one or moreprogrammatically-identified entities, such that the user is thenafforded an opportunity to selectively include one or more of thoseentities within each asset's peer group. Additionally or alternatively,the user may manually identify entities to include within each asset'speer group. Regardless of the particular method employed, for any oreach asset, the user may be afforded an opportunity to customize a peergroup comprising one or more other entities.

One or more social media profiles may then be associated with any oreach entity within the peer group(s) in a manner substantially similarto that described above with respect to the user's assets or entities.Moreover, each peer group and/or peer group member may be tagged withtrait or characterization information in a manner substantially similarto that described above with respect to previously-identified assets.

At step 640, the asset, entity, and peer group information, includingany or all associated social media profile information, may be used tocollect relevant data from one or more social media platforms. In oneembodiment, a data request may be generated based, at least in part, onthe asset, entity, or peer group information, including any or allassociated social media profile information. The data request may thenbe transmitted to one or more social media platforms from either thehost server or the user's device. In one embodiment, the data requestmay be transmitted to the social media platforms via one or more APIsassociated with the respective platforms. In another embodiment, thedata request may be accompanied by authentication information orcredentials for verifying the validity of the request.

In one embodiment, the data request may request all of the datamaintained in one or more databases of the social media platform. Thisdata may include, but is not limited to, data associated with any or allmembers of the social media platform, including information provideddirectly from those members and information indicative of the members'activities over the social media platform.

In other embodiments, all of the data maintained in one or moredatabases of the social media platform that may be associated with oneor more social media profiles may be requested. In particular, allinformation associated with the social media profiles identified insteps 610-630 may be requested. Such social media profiles may compriseone or more social media profiles associated with the assets and/or oneor more social media profiles associated with other entities withinthose assets' respective peer groups. In a further embodiment, only asubset of data maintained in one or more databases of the social mediaplatform that may be associated with one or more social media profilesmay be requested. The data associated with a social media profile mayinclude, but is not limited to, data associated with those assets,entities, or peer groups affiliated with the social media profile, aswell as data associated with those members of the social media platformthat in some way interacted with the respective social media profile.

In another aspect, and depending upon the permissions and/or policies ofeach social media platform, a data request may be transmitted to one ormore social media platforms to initiate the transmission of: historicaldata associated with one or more social media profiles; an ongoing,real-time stream of data associated with one or more social mediaprofiles; or periodic transmissions of the latest available data atpredetermined time intervals. In some embodiments, any one or more ofthe aforementioned requests may be accomplished with a single requestand/or transmission of authentication information, or alternatively, maybe accomplished through a plurality of requests and/or authenticationinformation transmissions. For example, where an ongoing, real-time datastream associated with one or more social media profiles is requested,updated authentication information may be periodically transmitted atpredetermined intervals in order to receive the stream in anuninterrupted fashion.

In another aspect, where one or more social media profiles may includepublic conversations, as discussed previously herein, a data requesttransmitted to one or more social media platforms may comprise one ormore keywords for searching any or all publically available data of therespective social media platform. In an alternative embodiment, allpublically available data may be requested, or a subset of thepublically available data may be requested based, at least in part, onsome criteria different from, or in addition to, keywords.

In a further aspect, any data may be requested from one or more socialmedia servers 330, 340, 350 that may be useful in conjunction withassessing the social media performance of an asset, entity, or peergroup. In one embodiment, and as set forth in steps 650 a-650 d, datamay be requested from one or more social media platforms for assessingany one or more of the audience, voice, engagement, and reach of anasset's social media presence or performance. As described above, anasset's social media audience, voice, engagement, or reach may comprisethe audience, voice, engagement, or reach, respectively, of one or moresocial media profiles associated with that asset.

In particular, at step 650 a, data indicative of the audience associatedwith an asset or social media profile may be retrieved or collected fromone or more respective social media platforms. As previously described,the audience associated with a social media profile may reflect arelationship between a social media profile and other users of thesocial media platform. In one embodiment, the audience associated with asocial media profile may indicate the number of social media users thathave confirmed a relationship with the social media profile on therespective social media platform. In a further embodiment, and dependingon the nomenclature used by the respective social media platform, theaudience associated with a social media profile may be based, at leastin part, on one or more components, including but not limited to,“friends,” “followers,” or “fans” associated with the social mediaprofile. In some embodiments, these components may or may not beweighted equally when determining the audience associated with a socialmedia profile.

At step 650 b, data indicative of the voice associated with an asset orsocial media profile may be retrieved or collected form one or morerespective social media platforms. As described above, the voiceassociated with a social media profile may reflect a messaging activitylevel associated with a social media profile. In one embodiment, thevoice associated with a social media profile may indicate the frequencywith which content is published to the social media platform by anentity that maintains the social media profile. In a further embodiment,and depending on the nomenclature used by the respective social mediaplatform, the voice associated with a social media profile may be based,at least in part, on one or more components, including but not limitedto, “posts,” “comments,” “tweets,” “replies,” or “re-tweets” associatedwith the social media profile. In some embodiments, these components mayor may not be weighted equally when determining the voice associatedwith a social media profile. In still further embodiments, contentpublished by the audience or other members of the respective socialmedia platform may also be included among the components of the voiceassociated with a social media profile, though content published by theasset that maintains the social media profile may be weighed differentlythan content published by the audience or other members. Additionally,information indicative of the media format associated with eachcomponent may be retrieved or collected from the one or more socialmedia platforms. Such format information may be taken into considerationwhen weighing the components.

Data indicative of the engagement associated with an asset or socialmedia profile may be retrieved or collected form one or more respectivesocial media platforms at step 650 c. As described above, the engagementassociated with a social media profile may reflect an ability for thesocial media profile to communicate a message reliably, i.e., while thevoice associated with a social media profile may indicate the frequencywith which content is published by an entity that maintains the socialmedia profile, engagement may indicate whether that activity isworthwhile. In one embodiment, the engagement associated with a socialmedia profile may indicate whether other users of the respective socialmedia platform are interacting with the published content. In a furtherembodiment, and depending on the nomenclature used by the respectivesocial media platform, the engagement associated with a social mediaprofile may be based, at least in part, on one or more components,including but not limited to, “shares,” “likes,” “comments,” “mentions,”“re-tweets,” “favorites,” and “replies,” and may also include, but maynot be limited to, hashtag mentions and/or search term/keyword matcheswithin a public conversation. In some embodiments, these components mayor may not be weighted equally when determining the engagementassociated with a social media profile. In still further embodiments,interactions with published content by any one or more of the asset thatmaintains the social media profile, the audience of the social mediaprofile, and other members of the respective social media platform maybe included in one or more of the components of the voice associatedwith the social media profile, though interactions by the asset thatmaintains the social media profile may be weighed differently thaninteractions by the audience or other members. Additionally, informationindicative of the media format associated with each component may beretrieved or collected from the one or more social media platforms. Suchformat information may be taken into consideration when weighing thecomponents.

In a further aspect, data indicative of the reach associated with anasset or social media profile may be retrieved or collected form one ormore respective social media platforms at step 650 d. As set forthabove, the reach associated with a social media profile may reflect apotential first and second order audience, i.e., while the audienceassociated with a social media profile may indicate the number ofplatform members that have confirmed a relationship with the socialmedia profile, reach may indicate whether that audience is a beneficialor useful audience. In one embodiment, the reach associated with asocial media profile may indicate both the audience associated with thesocial media profile, as well as the audience of the audience. In afurther embodiment, rather than simply taking into consideration theaudience of the audience, the reach associated with a social mediaprofile may take into consideration the audience of the engagedaudience, i.e., the audience of those social media platform members thatnot only are considered a part of the social media profile's audience,but those members that have engaged the content associated with thesocial media profile.

In alternative embodiments, data indicative of any one or more, but notnecessarily each, of the audience, voice, engagement, and reachassociated with an asset or social media profile may be retrieved.Further, the data indicative of one or more of the audience, voice,engagement, and/or reach associated with an asset or social mediaprofile may be retrieved or collected in any suitable order or it may becollected simultaneously or at an overlapping time. Data collectionrestraints and/or other limitations imposed by the one or more socialmedia platforms may further dictate how, when, or in what orderparticular data may be retrieved.

FIG. 7 depicts an illustrative method for determining the aforementionedshare assessment pertaining to an asset. At step 710, an asset for whichone or more share assessments is to be made may be identified. In oneembodiment, a share assessment may be performed with respect to an assetidentified by a user or the host server. In alternative embodiments, theuser or host server may identify a peer group, the assets of which areto be assessed. In such an embodiment, assets belonging to theidentified peer group may be serially assessed, one after another, orshare assessments for a plurality of assets may be conducted inparallel, i.e., simultaneously or at overlapping times.

Regardless of how an asset is identified, at step 720, each of theasset's associated social media profiles may be identified. In oneembodiment, one or more social media profiles may be stored in anaccessible database and associated with corresponding assets. In thismanner, the one or more social media profiles that serve as the basisfor an asset's social media performance may be easily identified and/orrecalled.

Similarly, the other entities belonging to the asset's peer group may beidentified at step 730. In one embodiment, peer group information may bestored in an accessible database and associated with correspondingassets. In this manner, the one or more peer groups to which an assetbelongs, and any entity therein, may be easily identified and/orrecalled. Further, upon identification of each entity in the asset'speer group, one or more of the social profiles that serve as the basisfor each of those entity's social media performance may be identifiedand/or recalled in a manner similar to that described above with respectto the asset.

At steps 740, one or more aspects of the asset's social mediaperformance may be assessed. In one embodiment, the audience, voice,engagement, and reach associated with an asset's social mediaperformance may be assessed at steps 740 a, 740 b, 740 c, and 740 d,respectively. In a further embodiment, any one or more of the audience,voice, engagement, and reach associated with an asset's social mediaperformance may be determined using Equation (4)(a) or (4)(b), above. Inparticular, where Equation (4)(b) is used, each social media profilecontributing to the assessment of the respective aspect (i.e., audience,voice, engagement, or reach) may be assigned a weight. Such weights mayreflect the relative control or influence an asset has with respect toactivities associated with social media profile. Alternatively, oradditionally, such weights may reflect the inter- orintra-organizational proximity of the social media profile to the asset.In other words, a social media profile directly maintained by the assetmay be assigned a greater weight than a social media profile directlymaintained by another entity within the same or a different tier of apeer group. Of course, other suitable methods and/or algorithms may alsobe used to determine the audience, voice, engagement, and/or reachassociated with the social media performance of an asset and Equations(4)(a) and (4)(b) are only illustrative of the possibilities.

It should also be noted that any one or more of steps 740 a-740 f may beperformed in any suitable order. Alternatively, or additionally, any oneor more of steps 740 a-740 f may be performed in parallel,simultaneously, or at overlapping times.

At step 750, one or more aspects of the social media performance of thepeer group to which the asset belongs may be assessed. Similar to steps740 a-740 f, the audience, voice, engagement, and reach associated withthe peer group's social media performance may be assessed at steps 740a, 740 b, 740 c, and 740 d, respectively. Assessing these aspects of thepeer group's performance is substantially similar to assessing the sameaspects of the asset's performance. In one embodiment, whereas assessingthe performance of an asset may comprise assessing the performance ofeach social media profile associated with the asset, assessing theperformance of a peer group may comprise assessing the performance ofeach social media profile associated with the peer group (which wouldnecessarily include the same social media profiles assessed with respectto the asset). Thus, as is the case when assessing an asset, any one ormore of the audience, voice, engagement, and reach associated with apeer group's social media performance may be determined using Equation(4)(a) or (4)(b), above. Where Equation (4)(b) is used, each socialmedia profile contributing to the assessment of the respective aspect(i.e., audience, voice, engagement, or reach) of the peer group'sperformance may be assigned a weight. Other suitable methods and/oralgorithms may also be used to determine the audience, voice,engagement, and/or reach associated with the social media performance ofa peer group and Equations (4)(a) and (4)(b) are only illustrative ofthe possibilities. Moreover, it should be noted that any one or more ofsteps 740 a-740 f and 750 a-750 f may be performed in any suitableorder. Alternatively, or additionally, any one or more of steps 740a-740 f and 750 a-750 f may be performed in parallel, simultaneously, orat overlapping times.

Once the audience, voice, engagement, and/or reach associated with bothan asset's social media performance and a corresponding peer group'ssocial media performance has been determined, the asset's share of theaudience, share of the voice, share of the engagement, and/or share ofthe reach associated with a peer group may be determined. In oneembodiment, an asset's share of audience, voice, engagement, and/orreach may represent a portion or percentage of a total audience, voice,engagement, and/or reach, respectively, associated with the peer groupthat includes the asset. In a further embodiment, the share of anasset's audience, voice, engagement, and/or reach may be determinedusing Equation (7), above. Of course, other suitable methods and/oralgorithms may also be used to determine an asset's share of theaudience, voice, engagement, and/or reach associated with the socialmedia performance of a peer group and Equation (7) is only illustrativeof the possibilities.

FIG. 8 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a method for determining acomparative score for one or more assets or entities in a peer group. Inone embodiment, a comparative score may be determined for any one ormore of the audience, voice, engagement, or reach, associated with anasset's social media performance. In a further embodiment, a compositecomparative score may be determined for one or more entities, thecomposite comparative score being based, at least in part, on thecomparative scores determined for the audience, voice, engagement,and/or reach of the corresponding asset. Such comparative scores andcomposite comparative scores may then be used to directly compare and/orrank assets within a peer group.

In one embodiment, at step 810, aspects of the social media performanceof a plurality of assets may be assessed. In one embodiment, theaudience, voice, engagement, and reach associated with each asset'ssocial media performance may be assessed at steps 810 a, 810 b, 810 c,and 810 d, respectively. In a further embodiment, any one or more of theaudience, voice, engagement, and reach associated with each asset'ssocial media performance may be determined using Equation (4)(a) or(4)(b), above. In particular, where Equation (4)(b) is used, each socialmedia profile contributing to the assessment of a respective aspect(i.e., audience, voice, engagement, or reach) for each asset may beassigned a weight. Of course, other suitable methods and/or algorithmsmay also be used to determine the audience, voice, engagement, and/orreach associated with the social media performance of each asset andEquations (4)(a) and (4)(b) are only illustrative of the possibilities.

It should also be noted that any one or more of steps 810 a-810 f may beperformed in any suitable order. Alternatively, or additionally, any oneor more of steps 810 a-810 f may be performed in parallel,simultaneously, or at overlapping times.

At step 820, the performance assessments associated with each asset maybe used to calculate the average social media performance across thepeer group. In particular, the audience associated with each asset inthe peer group (step 810 a) may be used to determine an average audiencefor the peer group (step 820 a), the voice associated with each asset inthe peer group (step 810 b) may be used to determine an average voicefor the peer group (820 b), the engagement associated with each asset inthe peer group (step 810 c) may be used to determine an averageengagement for the peer group (820 c), and the reach associated witheach asset in the peer group (step 810 d) may be used to determine anaverage reach for the peer group (820 d). In one embodiment, Equation(8), described above, may be used to determine the average social mediaperformance for any one or more aspects of the peer group. Of course,other suitable methods and/or algorithms may also be used to determinethe average audience, voice, engagement, and/or reach associated withthe social media performance of a peer group and Equation (8) is onlyillustrative of the possibilities.

It should also be noted that any one or more of steps 820 a-820 f may beperformed in any suitable order. Alternatively, or additionally, any oneor more of steps 820 a-820 f may be performed in parallel,simultaneously, or at overlapping times.

At step 830, the standard deviation associated with one or more aspectsof a peer group's performance assessments may be determined. Inparticular, the audience associated with each asset in the peer group(step 810 a) and the average audience for the peer group (step 820 a)may be used to determine the standard deviation of the audienceassociated with the peer group (step 830 a), the voice associated witheach asset in the peer group (step 810 b) and the average voice for thepeer group (step 820 b) may be used to determine the standard deviationof the voice associated with the peer group (step 830 b), the engagementassociated with each asset in the peer group (step 810 c) and theaverage engagement for the peer group (step 820 c) may be used todetermine the standard deviation of the engagement associated with thepeer group (step 830 c), and the reach associated with each asset in thepeer group (step 810 d) and the average reach for the peer group (step820 d) may be used to determine the standard deviation of the reachassociated with the peer group (step 830 d). In one embodiment, Equation(9), described above, may be used to determine the standard deviationassociated with any one or more aspects of the peer group's social mediaperformance. Of course, other suitable methods and/or algorithms mayalso be used to determine the standard deviation associated with any oneor more aspects of the peer group's social media performance andEquation (9) is only illustrative of the possibilities.

It should also be noted that any one or more of steps 830 a-830 f may beperformed in any suitable order. Alternatively, or additionally, any oneor more of steps 830 a-830 f may be performed in parallel,simultaneously, or at overlapping times.

At step 840, a comparative score for each aspect of each asset's socialmedia performance may be determined. In one embodiment, a comparativescore may be determined for any one or more of the audience (step 840a), voice (step 840 b), engagement (step 840 c), or reach (step 840 d)associated with each asset of a peer group. Such comparative scores maythen be used to directly compare and/or rank assets or entities within apeer group against each other within the context of the correspondingaspect. In one embodiment, a comparative score for each aspect of eachasset's social media performance may be determined using Equation (10),above. In particular, Equation (10) may be used to determine apercentile score for each aspect of each asset's social mediaperformance. As described above, there may be a number of advantages topresenting and/or ranking a plurality of assets in accordance with theirrespective percentile scores. For example, such a scoring methodologyyields an intuitive range of resulting scores bound by 0 and 100, and itmay be immediately recognized in what percentile of the peer group theasset's performance falls. This methodology also provides for easiermovement of scores within the mid-range of the peer group than at thetails or extremes. In other words, an asset may find it easier toimprove its percentile score from 50 to 60 than from 60 to 70, andeasier still than improving from 70 to 80. In fact, improvement ordegradation of a percentile score becomes very difficult the closer theasset's score approaches 100 or 0, respectively.

In another embodiment, a comparative score for each aspect of eachasset's social media performance may be determined using Equation (11),above. In particular, Equation (11) may be used to determine a T-scorefor each aspect of each asset's social media performance. As describedpreviously herein, presenting and/or ranking assets or entities within apeer group in accordance with their respective T-scores also hasadvantages. Like the percentile scores, this methodology yields anintuitive range of resulting scores bound by 0 and 100. Additionally,this methods affords a wider range of resulting scores at the extremeends of the spectrum, as percentile scores may result in a score of 0for all entities with assessment scores falling more than 3 standarddeviations below the mean for the peer group and/or a score of 100 forall entities with assessment scores greater than 3 standard deviationsabove the mean for the peer group.

Of course, other suitable methods and/or algorithms may also be used todetermine a comparative score associated with any one or more aspects ofeach asset's social media performance and Equations (10) and (11) areonly illustrative of the possibilities. It should also be noted that anyone or more of steps 840 a-840 f may be performed in any suitable order.Alternatively, or additionally, any one or more of steps 840 a-840 f maybe performed in parallel, simultaneously, or at overlapping times.

At step 850, any one or more comparative scores associated withrespective aspects of an asset's social media performance may becombined into a single composite score. For example, a composite scorefor an asset may be determined based, at least in part, on any one ormore of its comparative audience score, its comparative voice score, itscomparative engagement score, and/or its comparative reach score. In oneembodiment, a composite score may be determined for one or more assetsin the peer group using Equation (12), above. In one aspect, either apercentile score or a T-score (described above with respect to steps 830a-830 d) may be used to determine each component upon which thecomposite score may be based (provided all components of the compositescore are based on the same scoring methodology).

In a further embodiment, the influence and impact determinations for anasset (e.g., Equations (5) and (6)) may also be taken into considerationwhen calculating the composite score associated with one or more assets.In such an embodiment, the influence and/or impact components may beafforded their own respective weights when determining a composite scorethat includes them.

In alternative embodiments, a composite score may also be calculatedbased on the share of audience, share of voice, share of engagement, andshare of reach assessments described above and depicted in FIG. 7. Sucha composite score, in one embodiment, may be determined using Equation(12) and may be based, at least in part, on one or more shareassessments determined using Equation (7).

FIG. 9 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a method for determiningthe influence and impact associated with a social media profile's orasset's social media performance. As described above, the influenceassociated with a social media profile or asset may reflect, among otherthings, an ability for the social media profile to convert reach intoengagement. In one embodiment, the influence associated with a socialmedia profile or asset may represent a ratio of the engagementassociated with the social media profile or asset to the reachassociated with the social media profile or asset. Thus, and forexample, assuming two social media profiles having equal reach, thesocial media profile associated with greater engagement may have greaterinfluence.

On the other hand, the impact associated with a social media profile orasset may reflect, among other things, an efficiency with which thesocial media profile or asset may generate influence and/or engagement.In one embodiment, the impact associated with a social media profile orasset may represent a ratio of the engagement associated with the socialmedia profile or asset to the reach associated with the social mediaprofile (similar to the influence) but further take into account thevoice associated with the social media profile. Thus, and for example,assuming two social media profiles or assets having equal influenceand/or engagement, the social media profile or asset associated withless voice may have greater impact, as less energy may be exerted whileachieving equal results as compared to the other social media profile orasset.

In one aspect, at steps 910 and 920, the engagement and reach associatedwith a social media profile or asset may be determined. In oneembodiment, the engagement and reach associated with the social mediaperformance of a social media profile may be determined using Equation(1), described above, while the engagement and reach associated with thesocial media performance of an asset (comprising one or more socialmedia profiles) may be determined using either of Equations (4)(a) or(4)(b), also described above. Of course, other suitable methods and/oralgorithms may also be used to determine the engagement and reachassociated with a social media profile or asset, and Equations (1),(4)(a), and (4)(b) are only illustrative of the possibilities.

It should also be noted that steps 910 and 920 may be performed in anysuitable order. Alternatively, or additionally, steps 910 and 920 may beperformed in parallel, simultaneously, or at overlapping times.

At step 930, an influence associated with the social media profile orasset may be determined based, at least in part, on the engagement andreach determinations made at steps 910 and 920, respectively. In oneembodiment, the influence associated with the social media performanceof a social media profile may be determined using Equation (2),described above, while the influence associated with the social mediaperformance of an asset (comprising one or more social media profiles)may be determined using Equation (5), also described above. Of course,other suitable methods and/or algorithms may also be used to determinethe influence associated with a social media profile or asset, andEquations (2) and (5) are only illustrative of the possibilities.

At step 940, the voice associated with a social media profile or assetmay be determined. In one embodiment, the voice associated with thesocial media performance of a social media profile may be determinedusing Equation (1), described above, while the voice associated with thesocial media performance of an asset (comprising one or more socialmedia profiles) may be determined using either of Equations (4)(a) or(4)(b), also described above. Of course, other suitable methods and/oralgorithms may also be used to determine the voice associated with asocial media profile or asset, and Equations (1), (4)(a), and (4)(b) areonly illustrative of the possibilities.

It should also be noted that steps 930 and 940 may be performed in anysuitable order. Alternatively, or additionally, steps 930 and 940 may beperformed in parallel, simultaneously, or at overlapping times.Moreover, steps 910, 920, and 940 may be performed in any order,parallel, simultaneously, or at overlapping times.

At step 950, an impact associated with the social media profile or assetmay be determined based, at least in part, on the influence and voicedeterminations made at steps 930 and 940, respectively. In oneembodiment, the impact associated with the social media performance of asocial media profile may be determined using Equation (3), describedabove, while the impact associated with the social media performance ofan asset (comprising one or more social media profiles) may bedetermined using Equation (6), also described above. Of course, othersuitable methods and/or algorithms may also be used to determine theimpact associated with a social media profile or asset, and Equations(3) and (6) are only illustrative of the possibilities.

It should also be noted that steps 930 and 950 may be performed in anysuitable order. Alternatively, or additionally, steps 930 and 950 may beperformed in parallel, simultaneously, or at overlapping times.

FIG. 10 depicts illustrative examples of how one asset's social mediaperformance may impact other assets' social media performance withinentity peer group, however that peer group may be defined. Inparticular, examples of both vertical and horizontal goodwill are shown.

In one aspect, a hierarchical structure 1000 is depicted that may besubstantially similar to structure 100 depicted in FIG. 1. In oneembodiment, structure 1000 may comprise four vertical tiers, each tierrepresenting one or more subsets or groupings within the hierarchy. Ofcourse, in alternative embodiments, structure 1000 may compriseadditional or fewer tiers. In particular, the first tier may represent apeer group or asset that may comprise every other asset within thehierarchical structure. Each subsequent tier, i.e., tiers 2, 3, and 4,may comprise progressively narrower subsets or groups than the previoustier and/or represent one or more subsets or groups of the assetsbelonging to the previous tier in the hierarchy. At tier 4, the lowesttier in the embodiment depicted in FIG. 10, each asset may represent anindividual or even a subset of an individual's responsibilities.

In another aspect, any or all assets within structure 1000 may beassociated with one or more social media profiles. The profiles maycomprise platform-specific user profiles and may be used to, among otherthings, communicate announcements, politicize events, advertiseproducts, disseminate news stories, or otherwise reach customers,consumers, or the public. For example, one or more assets of structure1000 may be associated with one or more of a Facebook, Twitter,LinkedIn, and Instagram profile.

In a further aspect, where the audience, voice, engagement, and/or reachassociated with an asset's social media performance may be determinedusing Equation (4)(b), each social media profile upon which thedetermination may be based may be afforded its own weight, c. In thismanner, and in one embodiment, social media profiles more closelyrelated to an asset and/or more reflective of the asset's social mediaactivity may be afforded greater weight than other social media profilesthat are more tangentially related to the asset. In other embodiments,the weighting of the various social media profiles to be included in aperformance assessment may depend upon other factors, such as theparticular social media platform associated with the social mediaprofile.

In one embodiment, each asset within a peer group may have one or moresocial media profiles for which it is responsible for placing contentand/or engaging with the public. Thus, when assessing the social mediaperformance of an asset, any such social media profiles for which theasset is directly responsible, i.e., “primary social media profiles,”may be included in the assessment. However, social media profiles forwhich the asset may not be directly responsible, i.e., “secondary socialmedia profiles,” may also be included in the assessment. For example,and again where an assessment of an asset's performance weights thevarious social media profiles that may be taken into account, primarysocial media profiles may be afforded greater weight than secondarysocial media profiles.

Moreover, depending upon whether the entity that is directly responsiblefor a secondary social media profile may be classified as within thesame tier of structure 1000 as the asset being assessed or a differenttier than the asset being assessed, the effect that a secondary socialmedia profile may have upon the asset's performance assessment may bedeemed horizontal goodwill or vertical goodwill, respectively. Thus, anassessment of the social media performance of each asset withinhierarchical structure 1000 may account for the contributions, bothpositive and negative, of other entities within the same structure.

In one aspect, the arrows depicted in FIG. 10 may represent examples ofthe effect one asset's social media performance may have on another,i.e., horizontal and vertical goodwill. More precisely, the arrowsdepicted in FIG. 10 may represent the effect that a secondary socialmedia profile directly maintained by one asset has on the social mediaperformance of another asset that does not have direct responsibilityfor the secondary social media profile.

In one embodiment, each of asset 1040 a and 1040 b may be associatedwith one or more social media profiles that they maintain, or aredirectly responsible for, independent of one another (i.e., respectiveprimary social media profiles). Nonetheless, when assessing the socialmedia performance of asset 1040 a, the primary social media profile ofasset 1040 b may be included in the assessment as a secondary socialmedia profile associated with asset 1040 a. In a further embodiment, aportion of asset 1040 a's assessment attributable to, or based on, thatsecondary social media profile may be afforded less weight than theportion attributable to, or based on, a primary social media profile.Moreover, because asset 1040 a and 1040 b may belong to the same tier ofpeer group 1010, any effect that a social media profile maintained byasset 1040 b may have on the performance assessment of asset 1040 a,positive or negative, may be deemed horizontal goodwill.

In another embodiment, any similar effect that a social media profilemaintained by asset 1040 b may have on a performance assessment of 1040c, positive or negative, may also be deemed horizontal goodwill. Asdepicted in FIG. 10, though assets 1040 a, 1040 b, and 1040 c eachbelong to a common tier of peer group 1010 (i.e., a fourth tier), assets1040 a and 1040 b may belong to a common asset 1030 a of tier 3. Asset1030 a may be, for example, a department, section, division, or localoffice of peer group 1010. Asset 1040 c, on the other hand, may belongto an asset 1030 b, which may belong to a same tier of peer group 1010as asset 1030 a (i.e., the third tier). In such an embodiment, whenassessing the social media performance of 1040 a, not only may anassessment of any social media profiles maintained by asset 1040 b betaken into consideration, but any social media profiles maintained byasset 1040 c may also be taken into consideration. Further, any effectthat a social media profile maintained by asset 1040 c may have on theperformance assessment of asset 1040 a, positive or negative, may bedeemed horizontal goodwill. However, because assets 1040 a and 1040 bmay belong to a common tier 3 entity (i.e., asset 1030 a) and asset 1040c may belong to a different tier 3 entity (i.e., asset 1030 b), aportion of asset 1040 a's assessment attributable to, or based on, asocial media profile maintained by asset 1040 c may be afforded lessweight than a portion attributable to, or based on, a social mediaprofile maintained by asset 1040 b.

Similar instances of horizontal goodwill, i.e., the effect one asset'sprimary social media profile's performance may have on the performanceassessment of another asset belonging to a same tier, may also bepresent at other tiers of peer group 1010. For example, any effect thatthe primary social media profile of asset 1030 a may have on anassessment of the social media performance of asset 1030 b may be deemedhorizontal goodwill, and vice versa. Comparable instances of horizontalgoodwill may also be present within the second tier of peer group 1010where the performance of a primary social media profile of asset 1020may affect a performance assessment of another entity belonging to thesecond tier (not shown in FIG. 10).

In another aspect, examples of vertical goodwill are also depicted inFIG. 10. For example, a social media performance assessment of asset1030 a may not only take one or more primary social media profiles intoconsideration, but also one or more social media profiles maintained byasset 1040 a or 1040 b. Because asset 1030 a belongs to a different tierof peer group 1010 (i.e., a third tier) as compared to assets 1040 a and1040 b (i.e., a second tier), any effect that the social media profilesmaintained by asset 1040 a or 1040 b may have on a performanceassessment of asset 1030 a, positive or negative, may be deemed verticalgoodwill. It should be noted, however, that a weight afforded each ofthe social media profiles maintained by assets 1040 a and 1040 b may notnecessarily be the same.

In another embodiment, the performance of a social media profilemaintained by asset 1040 b (a fourth tier asset), for example, may betaken into consideration when assessing the social media performance ofasset 1030 b (a third tier asset), despite the fact that asset 1040 bmay not belong to an entity subset or group of asset 1030 b. In such anembodiment, the performance of a social media profile maintained byasset 1040 b may be weighted in a manner reflective of the tangentialrelationship between asset 1040 b and asset 1030 b. For example, wherean assessment of the social media performance of asset 1030 b may takeinto consideration the performance of social media profiles maintainedby both assets 1040 b and 1040 c, the performance of the social mediaprofile maintained by asset 1040 c may be afforded more weight than theperformance of the social media profile maintained by asset 1040 b. Ofcourse, these examples are only illustrative of the possibilities, andany suitable weight may be afforded the performance of any social mediaprofile in structure 1000.

In a further aspect, vertical goodwill may not necessarily extend onlyone vertical tier. In one embodiment, not only may the performance of asocial media profile maintained by asset 1040 a (a fourth tier asset) betaken into consideration when assessing the social media performance ofasset 1030 a (a third tier asset), but the performance of the socialmedia profile maintained by asset 1040 may also be taken intoconsideration when assessing the social media performance of asset 1020or 1010. In such embodiments, a weight afforded the performance of asocial media profile maintained by asset 1040 a may be reflective of thedegrees of separation (i.e., the organizational or structural distance)between asset 1040 a and the asset whose performance is being assessed.In other words, the weight afforded the performance of a social mediaprofile maintained by asset 1040 a may be greater when assessing theperformance of asset 1030 a than when assessing the performance of asset1020, and greater still than when assessing the performance of asset1010.

Though the foregoing examples of vertical goodwill demonstrate how theperformance of a social media profile maintained by an asset may betaken into consideration during a performance assessment an assetbelonging to a higher tier, vertical goodwill may also flow in anopposite direction. For example, the performance of a social mediaprofile maintained by any one or more of asset 1010, asset 1020, asset1030 a, and asset 1030 b may be taken into consideration when assessingthe social media performance of asset 1040 a, 1040 b, or 1040 c.Moreover, a weight afforded the performance of a social media profilemaintained by an entity belonging to a higher tier may reflect thedegrees of separation, or structural distance, between the maintainingasset and the asset whose performance is being assessed.

In addition to assessing the performance of one or more assets and/orsocial media profiles, the “velocity” of a content item published on asocial media platform may also be assessed. As described above, theengagement associated with a social media profile may indicate whethermembers of a social media platform are interacting with contentpublished by an asset maintaining the social media profile. As describedabove, and depending on the nomenclature used by the respective socialmedia platform, the engagement associated with a social media profilemay be based, at least in part, on one or more components, including butnot limited to, “shares,” “likes,” “comments,” “mentions,” “re-tweets,”“favorites,” and “replies,” and may also include, but may not be limitedto, hashtag mentions and/or search term/keyword matches within a publicconversation.

Velocity, as used herein, may represent a derivative, or rate of change,of one or more engagement components with respect to a content item. Assuch, a high velocity may be associated with a popular orquickly-disseminating content item. Identification of such content itemsmay be useful to a user for a variety of reasons.

FIG. 11 depicts one illustrative embodiment of a method for determiningthe velocity associated with a content item. At step 1110, engagement ofa content item may be detected. As described above, engagement may referto any interaction that a member of a social media platform may havewith a content item published via a social media profile maintained byan asset.

In one embodiment, detection of an engagement of a content item may bebased, at least in part, on data retrieved from one or more social mediaplatforms by the host server. The retrieved data may be transmitted toany one or more of a data retrieval module, a streaming module, asupplemental data module, or an assessment module, as described abovewith respect to FIG. 4. Any or all of these modules may be furtherconfigured to detect a new engagement not previously retrieved from theone or more social media platforms.

Upon detection of a new engagement with respect to a content item, aninitial velocity for that content item may be determined at step 1120.In one embodiment, the initial velocity for a content item may bedetermined by the total number of engagements to-date, with respect tothat content item, divided by the period of time that may have lapsedsince the content item was initially published via the respective socialmedia profile. In some embodiments, the period of time that may lapsedsince the content item was initially published may be considered interms of seconds, microseconds, minutes, hours, or days. Of course,these units of time are only illustrative of the possibilities.

In one example, where a new engagement, for example a re-tweet, isdetected with respect to a content item published via a respectivesocial media profile on the Twitter platform, the host server mayretrieve information indicative of the total number of engagementsassociated with that content item to-date. Such information may beretrieved from the Twitter social media platform or it may be stored ina database associated with the host server. The total number ofengagements associated with the content to-date may reflect a runningtotal of, for example, all re-tweets, favorites, mentions, and hashtagmentions, as well as any keyword matches within a public conversationassociated with the content item since the content item was firstpublished. This total number of engagements may then be divided by thetime that may lapsed since the content item was published, for example xseconds. The resulting quotient may represent the current or initialvelocity associated with the content item.

At step 1130, this current or initial velocity may be compared to athreshold velocity. In one embodiment, the threshold velocity may besome predetermined velocity value above which a content item may be saidto be “trending” or otherwise quickly disseminating over the respectivesocial media platform. For example, the threshold may be y number ofengagements per second. It should be noted, however, that the thresholdmay be any suitable number of engagements over any suitable period oftime.

Where the current or initial velocity of the content item is below thethreshold, no further immediate action may be necessary with respect tothe content item until another new engagement is detected. Upondetection of a new engagement associated with the content item, theaforementioned process may repeat itself, beginning with step 1110.

On the other hand, where the current or initial velocity of the contentitem is above the threshold, the content item may be transmitted orotherwise written to a list of trending content at step 1140. In oneembodiment, the list of trending content may comprise one or morecontent items, each associated with a velocity deemed reflective ofrelatively quickly disseminating content. The list of trending contentmay be maintained in a database associated with host server, or withinstorage associated with any module of the host server, including but notlimited to, the assessment module or the presentation module.

At step 1150, upon the addition of the content item to the trendingcontent list, the present velocity of each content item on the trendingcontent list may be determined. In one embodiment, the velocityassociated with each content item on the trending content list may bedetermined in a fashion substantially similar to the method employed fordetermining the initial velocity of a content item at step 1120. Inother words, for each content item in the trending content list, a totalnumber of engagements to-date may be determined and that number may bedivided by the time that may have lapsed since the content was firstpublished.

After a present velocity has been determined for each content item inthe trending content list, the list may be sorted based, at least inpart, on the respective velocity determinations. In this manner, contentassociated with the highest velocity may be presented at the top of thetrending content list and content associated with the lowest velocitymay be presented at the bottom of the trending content list.

In one aspect, as content gains traction over a social media platform,its associated velocity may increase and, assuming the velocityassociated with the content item was greater than a predeterminedthreshold, that content item may rise within the trending content list.Conversely, as content grows stale and/or loses traction within a socialmedia platform, its associated velocity may decrease and that contentitem may fall within the trending content list. Further detailsregarding the content list, including how the list may be presented to auser within a GUI, are described below with respect to FIGS. 12-17.

FIG. 12 depicts an illustrative embodiment of a GUI 1200 for presentingsocial media performance assessment and/or score rankings to a user. Inone aspect, one or more assets 1210 may be presented and/or ranked inascending or descending order based, at least in part, on theirrespective social media performance assessments 1220. In one embodiment,in addition to information identifying each asset and correspondingperformance information, information 1230 indicative of any recentchange in an assessment over a predetermined time period, such as anhour, day, or week, may also be presented. Of course, thesepredetermined time periods are only illustrative and a recent change inan assessment may be determined based on any reasonable or desirabletime period.

In another aspect, information 1240 identifying the most engaging socialmedia content items associated with each asset may be presented. In oneembodiment, the social media content may be content placed on a socialmedia platform by the asset. Alternatively, the social media content mayreflect a conversation started by an entity or platform member otherthan the asset, but otherwise associated with the asset, e.g., the assetmay be mentioned by name in the conversation. Ancillary information 1250pertaining to the most engaging social media content for each asset mayalso be presented. In some embodiments, the original content and/or amost recent engagement with the original content may be presented.Additionally or alternatively, further information indicating howmembers of a social media platform have interacted with the mostengaging social media content may be displayed. For example, informationmay be displayed indicating how many members have viewed the contentand/or how many members have engaged the content. Of course, additionalor alternative information indicative of members' interactions with thecontent may also be displayed and the aforementioned examples are notintended to be exhaustive of the possibilities.

In a further aspect, information 1260 indicative of a sentimentsurrounding each presented asset may be displayed. In one embodiment,social media content associated with each asset may be analyzed over apredetermined time period and it may be determined whether the generalsentiment surrounding the content is favorable or unfavorable, and towhat extent. Sentiment may be determined through analysis of text,keywords, or character strings associated with the content item and/orasset. Systems and methods for analyzing social media content andcalculating a sentiment associated with the content are known, and anysuch system or method is suitable for use in the GUI described herein.

A user presented with data reflective of an asset's performanceassessment within the content of a peer group, the assessments of one ormore entities within the peer group, information indicative of anyrecent changes in the assessments, and/or the sentiment surroundingcontent items associated with each asset or entity may gain anappreciation not only for how the asset's social media performancecurrently compares to its peers, but whether the asset is engaging inbehavior likely to result in a future rise or fall in performance withrespect to the peer group. A user may also appreciate, apart from anasset's performance assessment, whether the asset's recent efforts areoutperforming or underperforming those of its peers.

In another aspect of the GUI presented in FIG. 12, one or more drop-downmenus or selectable filters 1270 may be presented to the user formanipulation. These filters may correspond, in some embodiments, toinformation tagged or otherwise associated with one or more assets,entities, social media profiles, and/or peer groups. Information taggingis discussed in more detail above with respect to FIG. 4. Moreover,because a user may select or otherwise determine the types ofinformation with which to tag one or more assets, entities, social mediaprofiles, and/or peer groups, the user may also select or otherwisedetermine the types of corresponding filters are displayed within theGUI. For example, where a user elects not to tag any assets, entities,social media profiles, and/or peer groups with geographic data, orotherwise indicates that geographic considerations are unimportant, ageographic filter may not be present or displayed within the GUI.

In one embodiment, a user of the GUI may select from which social mediaplatforms data is to be analyzed and/or presented. A user may furtherselect a tier within a peer group for which the user desires to receiveinformation and/or a subset of entities within a tier. Moreover, eachthe options available in any one or more menus may be responsive toinput received at another. For example a user's selection within a“vertical tier” drop-down menu or filter may have an effect on theoptions available under the “peer group” drop-down menu or filter.

Additional drop-down menus or filters may also be present for limitingand/or refining the presented assessment information. For example, usinga market size drop-down menu or filter, a user may be able to selectbetween a “small,” “mid-size,” “large” and/or “mega” market.Alternatively, a user may be able to select all markets or a subset ofmarkets. In this manner, the user may dynamically define a peer groupwithin which an asset may be assessed.

A user may further define a peer group using geographic filters. Forexample, a user may limit a peer group to entities located in the samecountry, time zone, state, zip code, county, school zone, or votingprecinct. The user may also select no geographic restraints. Of course,other geographic restraints are also possible and the aforementionedlist is only illustrative of the possibilities.

In a further aspect, the user may also select a time frame over which tocollect and analyze social media data. The time frames may be, forexample, a minute, an hour, a day, a week, or a month. Of course, theseexamples are only illustrative and other suitable time frame may bepossible, including but not limited to a real-time stream of allavailable data that may or may not include all or a subset of historicaldata. In any such embodiments, and as described above in more detail,different time intervals within the selected time frame may be weightedin some suitable fashion. For example, more recent activity may beweighted more heavily than relatively old or stale activity. Using theselectable time frames in this manner, in instances where the impact ofan event, report, story, or activity is of particular interest, a usermay select a time frame such that only data collected since theoccurrence of the event, report, story, or activity may be analyzedand/or presented within the GUI.

A user may also be afforded an opportunity to define a demographicsubset of social media users from which to analyze and/or presentassessment information. For example, a user may be interested in anasset's social media performance and that of its peers among aparticular demographic such as, for example, men between 25 and 50 yearsold or women over 50 years old.

Using any combination of the one or more filters 1270, a user maydefine, re-define, or customize a peer group and/or the presentedassessment information to best suit the user's needs. For example, theuser may view relatively high-level performance assessments for a largeor loosely defined peer group by applying few if any filters, or theuser may view relatively micro-level assessments corresponding to anarrowly tailored peer group by applying a number or all of theavailable filters.

GUI 1200 may further present information indicative of a “Historical”record 1280. Among other things, this feature may present informationpertaining to each presented asset indicative of: (1) the asset'sidentity; (2) the asset's current assessment rank within its peer group;(3) the asset's highest rank to-date; (4) the date on which the assetachieved its highest rank; (5) the date on which the asset first enteredthe ranking; and/or (6) the number of places the asset has risen orfallen since any preceding assessments were conducted. Of course, theseexamples only illustrative of the possibilities and any other useful ordesirable data may also be presented within the Historical record.

In some embodiments of the GUI, such as the embodiment depicted in FIG.13, a “Most Recent” record 1290 may be displayed or presented. Thisrecord may comprise a list of the most recent social media activity ofall assets for which assessment data is presented within the GUI. Thislisting may be presented in ascending or descending order, and mayprovide a user with information regarding which assets have mostrecently been active within a social media platform. Among other things,this feature may present information pertaining to: (1) an asset'sidentity; (2) the time elapsed since the asset's most recent socialmedia activity; and/or (3) information indicative of the contentassociated with the asset's most recent social media activity. Ofcourse, these examples are only illustrative of the possibilities andany other useful or desirable data may also be presented within the MostRecent record.

FIG. 14 depicts another illustrative embodiment of a GUI for presentingsocial media performance assessment information to a user. In oneembodiment, social media performance assessment information for a peergroup 1405 may be presented. Peer group 1405 may comprise a plurality ofassets 1410. In the depicted embodiment, peer group 1405 may comprise aplurality of television networks. In alternative embodiments, however,peer group 1405 may comprise a plurality of any type of entities.

In one aspect, performance assessment information may accompany eachasset 1410 within peer group 1405. In one embodiment, the performanceassessment information may comprise performance assessment shareinformation 1420 and performance assessment composite information 1422.Systems and methods for determining the share information 1420 andcomposite information 1422 is described above.

In another aspect, the share information may comprise any one or more ofa share of audience, a share of voice, a share of engagement, and ashare of reach associated with each asset 1410 within peer group 1405.In one embodiment, the share information 1420 may further comprise agraphical representation 1424 of share information. For example,graphical representation 1424 may graphically depict any one of theshare of audience, voice, engagement, or reach associated with an asset1410. In further embodiments, the overall size of graphicalrepresentation 1424 may reflect the market size of peer group 1405 orthe market size of a corresponding asset 1410. Market or filterinformation 1426 substantially similar to that described with respect toFIGS. 12 and 13 may also be displayed within the GUI.

In a further aspect, the GUI depicted in FIG. 14 may comprise a chart1430 graphically depicting the performance assessments of each asset1410 in peer group 1405 over time. In one embodiment, chart 1430 maycomprise a line graph depicting performance assessments 1432 along ay-axis over time 1434 along an x-axis. Moreover, a user may navigate todifferent time frames using an element 1436 of the GUI. Of course, othercharts or graphical representations of performance assessmentinformation pertaining to one or more entities may also be presented,and chart 1430 is only illustrative of one possibility.

In particular, performance assessment information may be charted foreach asset 1410, represented by lines 1440 a, 1440 b, 1440 c, 1440 d,and 1440 e, respectively. More detailed information regardingperformance assessment information at a selected time may also bedepicted at chart 1430. For example, a user may select a point 1452 intime at which to view performance assessment information 1450corresponding to each asset 1410. Performance assessment information1450 may comprise any type of assessment information corresponding topoint 1452 in time, including but not limited to, composite information,share information, and comparative score information.

In one aspect, not only may assessment information be presented for eachasset 1410 within peer group 1405, but performance assessmentinformation may be presented for associated assets belonging to lower orhigher tiers of peer group 1405. In one embodiment, one or more assets1410 may be selected from peer group 1405 (a selection may be indicatedby the grayed out area 1460 a surrounding the ABC asset in FIG. 14). Oneor more associated assets 1460 belonging to a higher or lower tier ofpeer group 1405, and associated with any selected assets 1410, may thenbe presented. In this manner, a user may simultaneously view performanceassessment information pertaining to multiple tiers of a peer group oran industry as a whole. Such a multi-tier view affords the user a greatdeal of context within which to assess the performance of one or moreassets, and intuitively decipher how the social media performance of oneor more assets within a first tier of a peer group may affect the socialmedia performance of one or more assets within another tier of the peergroup.

These one or more associated assets 1460 may represent assets whoseprimary social media profiles were taken into consideration whenassessing the social media performance of an asset 1410 of peer group1405. In such an embodiment, the one or more associated assets 1460 mayrepresent their own peer group (i.e., a plurality of assets, each ofwhich contributes to the social media performance of an asset 1410.)

In one embodiment, performance assessment information may accompany eachof the associated assets 1460 and reflect the social media performanceof those associated assets 1460. For example, one associated asset maybe accompanied by a composite score rank information 1462 indicative ofwhere the respective associated asset ranks among its peer group withrespect to social media performance. As discussed above, the compositescore rank may be based on various composite scores, including but notlimited to, a percentile score, a T-score, or a share assessment.

Alternatively, or additionally, each associated asset 1460 may bepresented in conjunction with share information 1464, 1466, 1468comprising any one or more of a share of audience, a share of voice, ashare of engagement, and a share of reach for each associated asset1460. Additional composite score information 1470 may also be presented,upon which rank information 1462 may be based.

In a further embodiment, each associated asset may be furtheraccompanied by an indicator 1472 indicating one or more social mediaplatforms from which data may have been retrieved and/or analyzed forassessing the performance of the respective associated asset 1460.

In another aspect, the GUI depicted in FIG. 14 may further comprise alist of social media content items 1480. In one embodiment, the contentitems may be content items published to one or more social mediaplatforms by any one or more of assets 1410. In an alternativeembodiment, the content items may be content items published by any oneor more of associated assets 1460. In other embodiments, the contentitems may be content items published by any or more of a combination ofassets 1410 and associated assets 1460.

Among other things, the list of content items 1480 may presentinformation comprising: (1) information identifying the asset thatpublished the respective content; (2) information identifying the socialmedia platform at which the content was published; (3) the publishedcontent or a portion thereof; (4) the time and/or date on which thecontent was published; and/or (5) a link for accessing additionalinformation associated with each content item. Of course, these examplesonly illustrative of the possibilities and any other useful or desirabledata may also be presented within the list of content items 1480.

In a further aspect, content list 1480 may comprise a plurality ofselectable lists (selectable using, for example, tabs at the top ofcontent list 1480). In one embodiment, content list 1480 may comprise,for example, a “live stream” list, a “top content” list, and/or a“trending content” list. A live stream list may comprise a list ofcontent items as they are published over one or more social mediaplatforms. Such a list may be updated in real-time, as content itemspublish, or as new content items are retrieved from the one or moresocial media servers. In a further embodiment, the newest or mostrecently published content items may appear at the top of the list,while older content items move progressively further down the list asnew content items appear.

A top content list may, among other things, rank content items based onone or more criteria. For instance, content items retrieved from the oneor more social media servers may be ranked according to any one or moreof their respective audience, voice, engagement, reach, influence, orimpact. As an example, content items at the top of the list may reflectthose content items with the highest engagement (as described above). Asadditional data may be retrieved from the one or more social mediaplatforms, whether in real-time or otherwise, engagement information maybe updated with respect to each content item and the top content listmay be updated accordingly.

Similarly, a trending content list may, among other things, rank contentitems based on one or more criteria. In one embodiment, content itemspresented in the trending content list may be ranked based, at least inpart, on the velocity associated with each content item. Systems andmethods for determining a velocity associated with a content item arepresented in more detail above. Content items at the top of the trendingcontent list may represent those content items associated with thehighest velocity, while the content items lower on the list may beassociated with progressively lower velocity. As additional data may beretrieved from the one or more social media platforms, whether inreal-time or otherwise, the velocity associated with each content itemmay be updated and the trending content list may be updated accordingly.

FIG. 15 depicts another illustrative embodiment of a GUI for thepresentation of social media performance assessment information. Likethe GUI depicted in FIG. 14, the GUI depicted in FIG. 15 may displaymulti-tier information, i.e., assessment information pertaining to oneor more assets belonging to different tiers within a peer group or anindustry/marketplace.

In one aspect, an asset 1510 may be identified and presented inconjunction with performance assessment information 1512, 1514, and1516. In one embodiment, assessment information 1512 may reflect one ormore composite scores associated with asset 1510, including but notlimited to, a composite share score, a composite T-score, and/or acomposite percentile score. Assessment information 1514 and 1516, on theother hand, may reflect social media platform-specific information, suchas but not limited to, one or more of a composite share score, acomposite T-score, and/or a composite percentile score with respect to aspecific social media platform. Selection or identification of asset1510 may be performed, among other ways, using a drop-down menu orfilter 1518. In one embodiment, selection of an asset filter such as1518 may present a list of one or more assets within a common tier of apeer group. An asset to be featured within the GUI may then be selectedfrom filter 1518 (here, as an example, New York Channel 4 has beenhighlighted and/or selected).

In another aspect, associated assets 1520 a, 1520 b, and 1520 c may bepresented in the GUI in conjunction with assessment informationassociated with each respective associated asset. As described abovewith respect to FIG. 14, associated assets 1520 a, 1520 b, and 1520 cmay represent assets within the same peer group, but belonging to adifferent tier, as compared to asset 1510. For example, assets 1520 a,1520 b, and 1520 c may be assets the social media performance of whichaffect (or otherwise taken into consideration when determining) thesocial media performance of asset 1510. In the particular embodimentdepicted, asset 1510 may be a local news station (e.g., New York Channel4) and assets 1520 a, 1520 b, and 1520 c may be television personalitiesor news anchors appearing on the local news station.

In conjunction with each associated asset, performance assessmentinformation pertaining to the respective asset may be presented. In oneembodiment, each associated asset may be presented in conjunction withrank information 1522, score information 1524, and/or an assessmentgraph 1526.

In one embodiment, rank information 1522 indicative of where anassociated asset ranks among its peer group with respect to social mediaperformance may be presented for one or more associated assets. Asdiscussed above, the rank information may be based, at least in part, onany performance assessment information, including but not limited to acomposite score. In further embodiments, such a composite score may bebased, at least in part, on any one or more of a percentile score, aT-score, or a share assessment/score. Moreover, each associated assetmay be displayed in a list sorted in accordance with its correspondingrank within a peer group.

Score information 1524 may represent any suitable assessment informationpertaining to an associated asset. For example, score information 1524may comprise any one or more of a composite score, such as a compositepercentile score, a composite T-score, or a composite shareassessment/score. Additionally, or alternatively, score information 1524may comprise any one or more aspects of a composite score, including butnot limited to, an audience, voice, engagement, and/or reach associatedwith the respective asset. Score information 1524 may also compriseinfluence or impact assessment information.

In another aspect, in addition to presenting rank information 1522 andscore information 1524, the GUI may also comprise a graph 1526reflecting assessment information for a corresponding asset over time.The assessment information represented within the graph may be anysuitable assessment information, including but not limited to, acomposite percentile score, a composite T-score, a composite shareassessment/score, audience assessment information, voice assessmentinformation, engagement assessment information, reach assessmentinformation, influence assessment information, and/or impact assessmentinformation. In one embodiment, as was the case with the GUI describedwith respect to FIG. 14, a time 1528 within graph 1526 may be selectedby the user in order to present a “snapshot” of assessment informationat that time. Moreover, the time frame represented in graph 1526 may beshortened or lengthened using a drop-down menu or filter 1530. In oneembodiment, selection of filter 1530 may bring up one or more selectabletime frames over which to display data at graph 1526. For example,filter 1530 may comprise an hour time frame, a day time frame, a weektime frame, a month time frame, a year time frame, and/or an all-timetime frame. It should be noted, however, that these examples are onlyillustrative of the possibilities, and any suitable time frame may beincluded in filter 1530.

It may be appreciated that using a GUI such as the GUI depicted in FIG.15, not only may a user view social media performance data associatedwith asset 1510, but the user may also gain an understanding of whichassociated assets within a peer group or hierarchical structure arebolstering or hindering the social media performance of asset 1510.Moreover, a user may understand whether each such associated asset'sperformance is trending upward or downward. In one embodiment, anassociated asset's score information 1524 may comprise a plurality ofscore types, and each may be based on a unique time frame. For example,score information 1524 may comprise both a composite percentile scoreand a composite share assessment score. In particular, the compositepercentile score may take into consideration social media data collectedover a longer time period than the data upon which the share assessmentscore is based. In this manner, the user may be presented with one score(e.g., a composite percentile score) reflective of an asset's socialmedia performance established over a relatively long time period and asecond score (e.g., a share assessment score) reflective of more recentsocial media performance. Viewing the two scores simultaneously mayfacilitate a determination as to the direction in which the asset'ssocial media performance may be trending. The same multi-time framescoring assessments may also be displayed with respect to asset 1510. Ofcourse, these examples of the types of information that may beinterpreted from viewing the GUI of FIG. 15 are only illustrative, and auser may derive many other insights from the GUI.

In another aspect, the GUI depicted in FIG. 15 may further comprise alist of social media content items 1540. In one embodiment, the contentitems may be content items published to one or more social mediaplatforms by asset 1510. In an alternative embodiment, the content itemsmay be content items published by any one or more of associated assets1520 a, 1520 b, 1520 c. In other embodiments, the content items may becontent items published by any or more of a combination of asset 1510and associated assets 1520 a, 1520 b, 1520 c.

Among other things, the list of content items 1540 may presentinformation comprising: (1) information identifying the asset thatpublished the respective content; (2) information identifying the socialmedia platform at which the content was published; (3) the publishedcontent or a portion thereof; and (4) the time and/or date on which thecontent was published (or some indication as to how long ago the contentwas published). Of course, these examples only illustrative of thepossibilities and any other useful or desirable data may also bepresented within the list of content items 1540.

In a further aspect, and like content list 1480 described with respectto FIG. 14, content list 1540 may comprise a plurality of selectablelists (selectable using, for example, tabs at the top of content list1540). In one embodiment, content list 1540 may comprise, for example, a“live stream” list, a “top content” list, and/or a “trending content”list. In one embodiment, these lists may be substantially similar tothose described above with respect to content list 1480. In alternativeembodiments, these lists may incorporate additional, fewer, oralternative features as compared to the corresponding lists describedabove with respect to content list 1480.

FIG. 16 depicts another illustrative embodiment of a GUI for thepresentation of social media performance assessment information. In oneaspect, the GUI depicted in FIG. 16 may display detailed assessmentinformation associated with an asset 1610. In one embodiment, asset 1610may be identified and presented in conjunction with performanceassessment information 1620, 1622, 1624, and 1626. Assessmentinformation 1620 may represent, among other things, one or morecomposite scores associated with asset 1610, including but not limitedto, a composite share score, a composite T-score, and/or a compositepercentile score. Additionally, or alternatively, assessment information1620 may comprise any one or more aspects of a composite score,including but not limited to, an audience, voice, engagement, and/orreach associated with asset 1610. Assessment information 1620 may alsocomprise influence or impact assessment information.

Rank information identifying a rank associated with asset 1610 within apeer group may also be presented at assessment information 1620. Asdiscussed above, any such rank information may be based, at least inpart, on any performance assessment information, including but notlimited to a composite score. Such a composite score may be based, atleast in part, on any one or more of a percentile score, a T-score, or ashare assessment/score.

In another aspect, assessment information 1622, 1624, and 1626 mayreflect social media platform-specific information, such as but notlimited to, one or more of a composite share score, a composite T-score,and/or a composite percentile score with respect to a specific socialmedia platform. Selection or identification of asset 1610 may beperformed, among other ways, using a drop-down menu or filter 1612. Inone embodiment, selection of an asset filter such as 1612 may present alist of one or more assets within a common tier of a peer group. Anasset to be featured within the GUI may then be selected from filter1612.

In a further aspect, the GUI may also comprise an assessment graph 1628reflecting assessment information associated with asset 1610 over time.The assessment information represented within the graph may be anysuitable assessment information, including but not limited to, acomposite percentile score, a composite T-score, a composite shareassessment/score, audience assessment information, voice assessmentinformation, engagement assessment information, reach assessmentinformation, influence assessment information, and/or impact assessmentinformation. In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 16, social mediaplatform-specific assessment information may be represented at graph1628, such that a user may determine how asset 1610 is performing oneach social media platform with respect to the others.

In a further embodiment, as was the case with the GUI described withrespect to FIGS. 14 and 15, a particular time within graph 1628 may beselected by the user in order to present a “snapshot” of assessmentinformation at that time. Moreover, the time frame represented in graph1628 may be shortened or lengthened using a drop-down menu or filter1629. In one embodiment, selection of filter 1629 may bring up one ormore selectable time frames over which to display data at graph 1628.For example, filter 1629 may comprise an hour time frame, a day timeframe, a week time frame, a month time frame, a year time frame, and/oran all-time time frame. It should be noted, however, that these examplesare only illustrative of the possibilities, and any suitable time framemay be included in filter 1629.

In one aspect, the GUI may further comprise asset-specific contentlists, including but not limited to, a “live stream” list 1630, a “topcontent” list 1632, and a “trending content” list 1634. In oneembodiment, asset-specific, live stream list 1630 may comprise a list ofcontent items published by the asset, the content items appearing on thelist as they are published over one or more social media platforms. Sucha list may be updated in real-time, as content items publish, or as newcontent items are retrieved from the one or more social media servers atpredetermined intervals. In a further embodiment, the newest or mostrecently published content items may appear at the top of the list,while older content items may move progressively further down the listas new content items appear. Each content item within the live streamlist may also comprise additional details regarding the content item,including but not limited to, an indication of when the content item waspublished, all or a portion of the content, and/or a link to additionalinformation associated with the content item.

Asset-specific, top content list 1632 may, among other things, rankcontent items published by asset 1610 based on one or more criteria. Forinstance, content items retrieved from the one or more social mediaservers may be ranked according to any one or more of their respectiveaudience, voice, engagement, reach, influence, or impact. As an example,content items at the top of the list may reflect those content itemspublished by asset 1610 associated with the highest engagement (asdescribed above). As additional data may be retrieved from the one ormore social media platforms, whether in real-time or otherwise,engagement information (or other criteria used) may be updated withrespect to each content item and the asset-specific, top content listmay be updated accordingly. Each content item within the asset-specific,top content list may also comprise additional details regarding thecontent item, including but not limited to, an indication of when thecontent item was initially published, all or a portion of the content,and/or a link to additional information associated with the contentitem.

Similarly, asset-specific, trending content list 1634 may, among otherthings, rank content items published by asset 1610 based on one or morecriteria. In one embodiment, content items presented in the trendingcontent list may be ranked based, at least in part, on the velocityassociated with each content item. Systems and methods for determining avelocity associated with a content item are presented in more detailabove. Content items at the top of the trending content list mayrepresent those content items published by asset 1610 that may beassociated with the highest velocity, while the content items lower onthe list may be associated with progressively lower velocity. Asadditional data may be retrieved from the one or more social mediaplatforms, whether in real-time or otherwise, the velocity associatedwith each content item published by asset 1610 may be updated and thetrending content list may be updated accordingly.

In another aspect, the GUI depicted in FIG. 16 may further comprise alist of social media content items 1640. In one embodiment, the contentitems may be content items published to one or more social mediaplatforms by asset 1640, as well as other entities within asset 1640'speer group. Thus, while lists 1630, 1632, and 1634 may reflect contentitems and social media activity specific to asset 1610, content list1640 may reflect content items and social media activity within theasset's peer group.

Among other things, the list of content items 1540 may presentinformation comprising: (1) information identifying the asset thatpublished the respective content; (2) information identifying the socialmedia platform at which the content was published; (3) the publishedcontent or a portion thereof; and (4) the time and/or date on which thecontent was published (or some indication as to how long ago the contentwas published). Of course, these examples only illustrative of thepossibilities and any other useful or desirable data may also bepresented within content list 1640.

In a further aspect, and like the content lists described above withrespect to FIGS. 14 and 15, content list 1640 may comprise a pluralityof selectable lists (selectable using, for example, tabs at the top ofcontent list 1640). In one embodiment, content list 1640 may comprise,for example, a “live stream” list, a “top content” list, and/or a“trending content” list. In one embodiment, these lists may besubstantially similar to those described above with respect to contentlists 1480 and 1540. In alternative embodiments, these lists mayincorporate additional, fewer, or alternative features as compared tothe corresponding lists described above with respect to content lists1480 and 1540.

FIG. 17 depicts another illustrative embodiment of a GUI for presentingsocial media performance assessment information to a user. In oneembodiment, social media performance assessment information for a peergroup 1705 may be presented. The peer group may comprise a plurality ofassets 1710. In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 17, assets 1710 maycomprise a plurality of television networks. In alternative embodiments,however, assets 1710 may comprise a plurality of any type of entities.

In one aspect, performance assessment information may accompany eachasset 1710 within peer group 1705. In one embodiment, the performanceassessment information may comprise performance assessment information1720 and performance assessment graphs 1730 and 1740. Assessmentinformation 1720 may represent, among other things, one or morecomposite scores associated with each corresponding asset 1710,including but not limited to, a composite share score, a compositeT-score, and/or a composite percentile score. Additionally, oralternatively, assessment information 1720 may comprise any one or moreaspects of a composite score, including but not limited to, an audience,voice, engagement, and/or reach associated with asset 1710. Assessmentinformation 1720 may also comprise influence or impact assessmentinformation.

Rank information identifying a rank associated with each asset 1710within peer group 1705 may also be presented at assessment information1720. As discussed above, any such rank information may be based, atleast in part, on any performance assessment information, including butnot limited to a composite score. In further embodiments, such acomposite score may be based, at least in part, on any one or more of apercentile score, a T-score, or a share assessment/score.

In another aspect, the GUI may also comprise assessment graphs 1730 and1740 reflecting performance assessment information associated with eachof assets 1710 over time. In one embodiment, the assessment informationrepresented within graph 1730 for each asset 1710 may be any suitableassessment information, including but not limited to, a compositepercentile score, a composite T-score, a composite shareassessment/score, audience assessment information, voice assessmentinformation, engagement assessment information, reach assessmentinformation, influence assessment information, and/or impact assessmentinformation associated with each asset. In particular, the type ofassessment information presented in graph 1730 may be selected by a userusing, for example, a drop-down menu or filter 1732.

In one embodiment, graph 1730 may comprise a line graph depictingperformance assessment information. In particular, performanceassessment information within graph 1730 may be represented by aplurality of lines 1734, each line corresponding to performanceassessment information for one of the assets 1710. In one embodiment,each of the plurality of lines is color-coded to a correspondingindicator 1736 associated with each of the assets 1710. Of course, othergraphs, charts, or graphical representations of performance assessmentinformation pertaining to assets 1710 may also be presented, and graph1730 is only illustrative of one possibility.

More detailed information regarding performance assessment informationat a selected time may also be depicted at graph 1730. For example, auser may select a point in time 1736 at which to view a snapshot ofperformance assessment information 1738 associated with one or moreassets 1710. Performance assessment information 1738 may comprise anytype of assessment information corresponding to time 1736, including butnot limited to, composite information, share information, comparativescore information, and/or any aspect thereof.

In the embodiment depicted at FIG. 17, assessment information 1738 maycomprise asset-specific information, i.e., assessment informationspecific to one of the assets 1710 within peer group 1705 (as shown,assessment information 1738 may depict assessment information associatedwith a CBS Channel 2 television station). Assessment information 1738may comprise any additional or suitable assessment information,including but not limited to, a composite percentile score, a compositeT-score, a composite share assessment/score, audience assessmentinformation, voice assessment information, engagement assessmentinformation, reach assessment information, influence assessmentinformation, and/or impact assessment information. Assessmentinformation 1738 may further include content items associated with anasset at time 1736. The content items may comprise, among other things:(1) information identifying an asset that published the respectivecontent; (2) information identifying the social media platform at whichthe content was published; (3) the published content or a portionthereof; (4) the time and/or date on which the content was published (oran amount of time that may have lapsed since the content was published;and/or (5) a link for accessing additional information associated witheach content item. Of course, these examples are only illustrative ofthe possibilities and any other useful or desirable data may bepresented within the content items.

In another aspect, the GUI may comprise graph 1740. In one embodiment,graph 1740 may convey any previously-described assessment informationassociated with any one or more of assets 1710, including but notlimited to, a composite percentile score, a composite T-score, acomposite share assessment/score, audience assessment information, voiceassessment information, engagement assessment information, reachassessment information, influence assessment information, and/or impactassessment information associated with each asset. In particular, likethe information presented in graph 1730, the type of assessmentinformation presented in graph 1740 may be selected by a user using, forexample, a drop-down menu or filter 1732. In one embodiment, the type ofinformation presented in graph 1740 may be specified independent of thetype of information presented in graph 1730. In an alternativeembodiment, specifying a particular type of information for presentationin one of graphs 1730 and 1740 may automatically determine the type ofinformation to be presented in the other graph.

As shown in FIG. 17, graph 1740 may also comprise a graph depicting thevolume of some aspect of social media activity associated with assets1710. The aspect depicted may be any suitable aspect describedpreviously herein, including but not limited to an audience, voice,engagement, or reach associated with each of assets 1710.

Moreover, where a user has selected a time 1736 overlaying both graphs1730 and 1740, more detailed information 1744 regarding the depictedperformance assessment information within graph 1740 at time 1736 may bedisplayed. For example, detailed information 1744 may present a snapshotof the volume for some aspect of social media activity associated withassets 1710 at time 1736.

In a further aspect, a time frame represented in graphs 1730 and 1740may be shortened or lengthened using a drop-down menu or filter 1750. Inone embodiment, selection of filter 1750 may bring up one or moreselectable time frames over which to display data at graphs 1730 and1740. For example, filter 1750 may comprise an hour time frame, a daytime frame, a week time frame, a month time frame, a year time frame,and/or an all-time time frame. It should be noted, however, that theseexamples are only illustrative of the possibilities, and any suitabletime frame may be included in filter 1750.

Additional features may also be incorporated into the described systemsand methods to improve their functionality. For example, systems and/ormethods may be devised for allowing a user to input rules foridentifying both good social media performance and poor social mediaperformance. Such rules may be based on any one or more of the socialmedia performance assessment information, scoring, or ranking describedherein. In one embodiment, excellent social media performance maytrigger a congratulatory alert to the one or more assets associated withthe social media performance. Alternatively, poor social mediaperformance may trigger an alter to the one or more assets associatedwith the social media performance, informing those assets as to theperformance assessment(s) and/or recommending steps that may be taken toimprove future performance.

The systems and method described herein may also be used to survey thesocial media performance of a plurality of assets across an industry.Such a survey may then be used to benchmark an asset's social mediaperformance against that of the industry and/or develop best practicesfor improving social media performance.

Other embodiments of the aforementioned systems and methods will beapparent to those skilled in the art from consideration of thespecification and practice of this disclosure. It is intended that thespecification and examples be considered as illustrative only, with thetrue scope and spirit of the disclosure being indicated by the followingclaims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A system for taking vertical goodwill intoaccount when assessing the social media performance of an asset, thesystem comprising: a configuration module for identifying an asset, theconfiguration module further configured to associate the asset with atleast a first social media profile and a second social media profile,the first social media profile being maintained by the asset and thesecond social media profile being maintained by an entity other than theasset; a data retrieval module for retrieving data from a social mediaplatform, the data associated with one or both of the first and secondsocial media profiles; and an assessment module for deriving profileperformance information for each of the first and second social mediaprofiles, the profile performance information pertaining to at least oneaspect of social media performance, wherein the assessment module isfurther configured to derive asset performance information based, atleast in part, on the profile performance information.
 2. The system ofclaim 1, wherein the entity belongs to a different hierarchical tier ofa peer group comprising the asset.
 3. The system of claim 2, wherein thepeer group is defined based, at least in part, on an input by a user. 4.The system of claim 2, wherein deriving asset performance informationcomprises weighting the profile performance information associated withthe first social media profile greater than the profile performanceinformation associated with the second social media profile.
 5. Thesystem of claim 4, wherein a weight corresponding to the profileperformance information associated with the first social media profileand a weight corresponding to the profile performance informationassociated with the second social media profile are based, at least inpart, on an input from a user.
 6. The system of claim 1, wherein the atleast one aspect of social media performance comprises a plurality ofaspects of social media performance; and the assessment component isfurther configured to derive profile performance information pertainingto each of the plurality of aspects of social media performance for eachof the first and second social media profiles.
 7. The system of claim 6,wherein the assessment component is further configured to derive assetperformance information pertaining to each of the plurality of aspectsof social media performance based, at least in part, on the profileperformance information pertaining to a respective aspect of the socialmedia performance for each of the first and second social mediaprofiles.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the plurality of aspects ofsocial media performance comprise an audience aspect, a voice aspect, anengagement aspect, and a reach aspect.
 9. A non-transitory,computer-readable medium containing instructions that, when executed bya processor, performs a method comprising: identifying an asset;associating a first subset of social media profiles with the asset, eachsocial media profile of the first subset being controlled by the asset;associating a second subset of social media profiles with the asset,each social media profile of the second subset being controlled by oneor more entities other than the asset; and deriving primary profileperformance information for each social media profile of the firstsubset, the primary profile performance information comprising one ormore components corresponding to one or more aspects of social mediaperformance; deriving secondary profile performance information for eachsocial media profile of the second subset, the secondary profileperformance information comprising the one or more componentscorresponding to the one or more aspects of social media performance;and deriving asset performance information based, at least in part, onthe primary profile performance information and the secondary profileperformance information.
 10. The non-transitory, computer-readablemedium of claim 9, wherein the asset belongs to a different verticaltier of a peer group than each of the one or more entities.
 11. Thenon-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprisingidentifying the one or more entities based, at least in part, on one ormore inputs from a user.
 12. The non-transitory, computer-readablemedium of claim 9, further comprising identifying each social mediaprofile of the second subset based, at least in part, on one or moreinputs from a user.
 13. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium ofclaim 12, further comprising receiving peer group information from theuser, the identification of each social media profile of the secondsubset based, at least in part, on the peer group information.
 14. Thenon-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 9, further comprisingassigning a weight to each social media profile of the first subset andeach social media profile of the second subset.
 15. The non-transitory,computer-readable medium of claim 14, wherein the lowest weight assignedto a social media profile of the first subset is greater than thehighest weight assigned to a social media profile of the second subset.16. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 9, wherein theprimary profile performance information and the secondary profileperformance information each comprise a plurality of components, eachcomponent corresponding to a unique aspect of social media performance.17. The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 16, whereinthe plurality of components comprise an audience aspect, a voice aspect,an engagement aspect, and a reach aspect.
 18. A non-transitory,computer-readable medium containing instructions that, when executed bya processor, performs a method comprising: identifying an asset;identifying a peer group, the peer group comprising the asset and aplurality of entities; identifying a plurality of social media profilesassociated with the peer group; deriving profile performance informationfor each of the plurality of social media profiles associated with thepeer group; and deriving asset performance information based, at leastin part, on the profile performance information for each of theplurality of social media profiles associated with the peer group. 19.The non-transitory, computer-readable medium of claim 16, whereinderiving asset performance information comprises assigning a weight toeach of the plurality of social media profiles.
 20. The non-transitory,computer-readable medium of claim 19, wherein a lowest weight assignedto a social media profile maintained by the asset is greater than thehighest weight assigned to a social media profile maintained by anentity belonging to a different tier of the peer group.